"Ronnie and Nancy: A Life in Pictures" (1983) Summary and Analysis

The Republican Convention, 1964, Cow Palace in San Francisco. Blue-haired women with leathery faces shout "Lover!" at Nelson Rockefeller for his communism and "indecently uncloseted heterosexuality." Meanwhile, a group of "seriously overweight Sunbelt Goldwaterites" chase TV anchorman David Brinkley through the kitchens of the Mark Hopkins Hotel. Another day in American politics, as seen through the sideways glance of Vidal, who was on the scene as a political commentator for Westinghouse. The pinnacle of the coronation for Barry Goldwater as presidential candidate: former President Dwight Eisenhower rises to deliver a speech attacking the press and "those commie-weirdo-Jew-fags who did not believe in the real America of humming electric chairs, well-packed prisons, and kitchens filled with every electrical device that a small brown person of extranational provenance might successfully...