A Carl Rosen Story Which Illustrates Why I Wouldn't Vote For Obama With A Gun To My Head

For those of you who've read this before, please indulge me.

A few years ago, I was having dinner with Rosen's son Andrew, three hedge-fund managers and Carl Rosen's attorney and best friend, a fellow whose wife was also a lawyer and higher up in Clinton's Department Of State. All of us at the table were Howard Dean supporters at the time. The topic of conversation over this dinner, however, was horse racing, not politics. At least, it didn't start out that way.

Over dessert and cordials, "The Chief's" attorney told the famous story of the Chris Evert/Miss Musket match-race of the summer of 1974. Rosen's 3YO filly, Chris Evert, had won NYRA's Triple Crown For Fillies: The Acorn, The Mother Goose, and the Coaching Club American Oaks. Miss Musket, owned by an Eastern Washington timber magnate named Aaron U. Jones, an avid supporter of all things fascist, had won a couple of important races for 3YO fillies in Southern California earlier that summer, as well. The managment of Hollywood Park racetrack put up $1,000,000 for a winner-take-all match-race between the two, should Rosen and his trainer Joe Trovato feel it appropriate to send Chris Evert out to California from New York for the race.

Rosen readily accepted the challenge and along with family, attorney, and Chris Evert's trainer, Joe Trovato, made the trip out West for the race. The public made Miss Musket 4/5 and Chris Evert even money in the betting. The Rosen camp bet, I believe, $500,000, into the windows on their filly. No one knows how much Jones had bet pari-mutuel on Miss Musket.

At any rate, about 1/2 hour before the race was to begin, Rosen turned to his attorney and said "let's gut this Nazi cocksucker," whereupon the attorney approached Jones in the Owners' Boxes and offered a $2 million heads-up bet at even money. Jones readily accepted.

Chris Evert won the race by 50 lengths.

Carl Rosen's attorney finished the story by saying "the only good thing I can say about that fucking Aaron Jones is that a cashier's check for $2 million was on my desk two days later."

What does this have to do with Barack Obama? Carl Rosen was a billionaire garmento who never forgot where he came from, never exploited his workers, got along with the ILGWU, supported all manner of left-wing causes, and never missed an opportunity to stick the knife into the right-wing. Yes, he was the ultimate practicioner of "the tired old partisan politics of yesteryear." Carl Rosen was never about "changing the tone." He was a fighter to the end, as are his son Andrew and protege Barry Schwartz today.

How would Barack Obama handled the match race? It sez here he would have "seen the validity in Aaron Jones' point of view, escpecially because of Jones's Christian values" and offered some kind of compromise in which he'd pay Jones if Miss Musket won but would require no payment should Chris Evert have won. Or something equally weak.

Obama's candidacy, like Gary Hart's, like Paul Tsongas's, raises some questions especially in light of the enlightened capitalists of yesteryear. 1) What's wrong with partisan politics? 2) Dialectic materialism is a fact of political life whether you are a Marxist, a Nazi, a Democrat or a Republican, so why cede your territory to the opposition before the synthesis-producing conflict has a chance to play out? All you've done is let your opponent start with the ball on your 25-yard line 3) You can love the employee and hate the employer even if you are the employer, or at least don't you think that as an employer you can recognize that a class distinction exists and not like it?

I tend to like the work of Naomi Klein quite a bit, but given that the Rosens and Barry Schwartz have always put their money where there mouths are politically, I think I'm going to excuse any Kelso's Nuts reader who indulged his or her consumerist behavior this holiday season and purchased anything with the Theory or Calvin Klein label. Oh sure, Members Only, too. The Wachtels aren't bad people either.

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