Report: Sean Eldridge Wants to Be the “First Openly Gay President”
The Daily Beast’s Jamie Kirchick has written a long overdue dissection of the most prominent gay couple in politics: embattled New Republic ownerand Facebook millionaire Chris Hughes and twice-failed Congressional candidate Sean Eldridge. While the whole essay is worth reading, what sticks out is a rumor buried in the twenty-third paragraph:
Eldridge’s political ambition is not likely to be satiated. Several years ago, before he ever announced his candidacy, a source close to Eldridge told me that he had SKDKnickerbocker draw up a plan for him to become the first openly gay president of the United States (Eldridge was born in Canada and until recently held both Canadian and Israeli citizenship, which would make it difficult to overcome the Constitution's natural-born citizenship clause). Expect the couple to find another mansion in a safe Democratic district where an aging representative is expected to retire.
Let’s quote that again:
A source close to Eldridge told me that he had SKDKnickerbocker draw up a plan for him to become the first openly gay president of the United States.
Eldridge is currently 28 years old (Hughes is 31), so this would have taken place when Eldridge was approximately...25 years old, give or take? U.S. Presidents must be at least 35 years old, which means SKDKnickerbocker was apparently tasked with writing a decade-long roadmap to elect Eldridge. And it’s not even that difficult to imagine what that plan would have entailed—because it would have entailed throwing around his husband’s money. Problem solved.
Update (1:15 p.m.): Sometime after Kirchick’s essay went up, The Daily Beast appended a statement from SKDKnickerbocker denying the presidential plan’s existence:
Statement from Anita Dunn, SKDKnickerbocker: “The suggestion that SKDKnickerbocker drew up a presidential plan for Sean Eldridge is untrue and ludicrous on its face, as we have told other reporters who asked us about this urban myth. Sean’s goal is to serve in Congress and we were proud to work with him on his campaign.”
That said, if you have a copy of this plan—and surely someone does, if it does in fact exist—please send it to us immediately. The future of the Republic depends on it. Anonymity guaranteed.
