<p><font size="2"><img title="3073934047_722ffd586d_b" style="border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; border-left: 0px; margin-right: auto; border-bottom: 0px" height="349" alt="3073934047_722ffd586d_b" src="http://ionlyweardresses.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/3073934047_722ffd586d_b.jpg" width="525" border="0" /> </font></p>  <p align="center"><font size="2">Nikki Haley, Republican Nominee, South Carolina governor.&#160; </font></p>  <p align="left"><font size="2">&quot;Her success ushers in a new era of South Carolina politics and represents a growing new generation of Republican leaders from across the country.&quot;&#160; Nick Ayers.</font></p>  <p align="left"><font size="2">If you know me, and you hopefully like me, you like or tolerate my obsession with President Richard Nixon and Senator Barry Goldwater.&#160; Studying these two figures in college pushed me into an additional American Studies major and pushed me to doctoral work in American history.&#160; </font></p>  <p align="left"><font size="2">Some days history makes you cry.&#160; For example, when I read these quotes by Richard Nixon in John Dean’s <em>The Rehnquist Choice</em>:</font></p>  <p align="left"><font size="2"><em>&quot;I don't think a woman should be in any government job whatever. I mean, I really don't. The reason why I do is mainly because they are erratic. And emotional&quot;</em>&#160; </font></p>  <p align="left"><font size="2">And this part:</font></p>  <p align="left"><font size="2"><em>&quot;I'm not for women, frankly, in any job. I don't want any of them around. Thank God we don't have any in the Cabinet”</em>&#160; </font></p>  <p align="left"><font size="2">{These quotes were captured on White House tapes, a security protocol that had been in place since President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s era.}</font></p>  <p align="left"><font size="2">It’s a brand new day isn’t it?&#160; I’m forgiving of Nixon’s biases since it seems to reflect an old guard mentality and like most of us, he was a complicated man.&#160; Additionally, Nixon’s greatest political achievement was extending the vote to 18 year olds (somewhere the Boy’s mother is laughing when she reads this because she doesn’t think this is much of anything).&#160; I respectfully and completely disagree – extending the vote to 18 year olds meant more groups of younger people were welcomed to participate in the political process – chief among them, younger women.&#160; </font></p>  <p align="left"><font size="2">Now, the Republican party is not only affording greater opportunities to minority politicians including those of foreign ancestry (I can name one other Indian governor and I believe a Mexican one), and a greater diversity in educational backgrounds.&#160;&#160; I think Nixon would have particularly appreciated the latter since both parties still seem to prioritize certain socio-economic backgrounds.</font></p>  <p align="left"><font size="2">I don’t like to play guessing games with history but I have loved to hear what President Nixon would have thought about the new female ascendancy in the Republican party.&#160; I for one, am ecstatic over Nikki Haley’s primary win and I hope South Carolina makes history twice.&#160; </font></p>  <p align="left"><font size="2"></font></p>  <p align="left"><font size="2">&#160;</font></p>