Karen McDougal vs. Huma Abedin

An article in the NY Post yesterday claimed that the National Enquirer, owned by American Media, Inc, bought exclusive rights to, and then refused to publish, a story about Karen McDougal, a former Playboy Playmate of the Year, who has claimed an affair with Donald Trump while he was married to Melania. The article featured this picture:

It does seem likely that an affair did take place. There are pictures of the two of them together --

-- and few men could resist a woman who looks like that. For her part, McDougal probably saw Trump as someone who could get her into the Miss Universe pageant or onto The Apprentice.

The scuttlebutt is that David Pecker, CEO of AMI and longtime friend of Donald Trump, smothered the report as a favor to Trump.

In any case, the point of this post is not the extramarital nature of Trump's affair. Hillary was rumored to have had affairs with Vince Foster and Webb Hubbell, and it is widely assumed that she and Huma Abedin are now an item:

Hillary seems to have been attracted to someone who is her opposite number physically: dark, relatively lean, and youthful. (Bear in mind, Huma has worked for Hillary in some capacity or other since she was in college.) Huma, for her part, was undoubtedly entranced by her proximity to such a famous person.

But what conclusions can we draw from these relationships, other than that Trump, as a heterosexual billionaire, has had access to better-looking women than Hillary has?

One way to look at it would be to say that Hillary is less superficial than Trump, less interested in bedding a woman purely for her aesthetic appeal.

That may be true. On the other hand, it's hard to imagine that if McDougal turned up on Hillary's doorstep, eager to work for her campaign and equally eager to jump into bed with the candidate, that Hillary would say no.

Huma, a graduate of George Washington University, is probably a little more cerebral than Karen, a fitness model and motorcycle enthusiast:

Maybe this means that Hillary is more interested in intelligent female sexual partners than Trump is.

Hillary's relationship with Huma has endured for 20 years now, whereas Trump's affair with McDougal reportedly spanned only 10 months. You could view this as evidence of steadfastness. Or, as having to settle for what you can get.

All of these things can be weighed in the balance when judging the two candidates, though, realistically, these relationships are but a minor point when considering whom to vote for.

But in a larger sense, it's hard to escape the conclusion that the two women represent, in microcosm, the candidates' visions of what they want this country to be.

Abedin was born in Michigan, but at age two her parents moved to Saudi Arabia, where Abedin lived until age 18, spending her formative years absorbing strict Muslim values. Her mother is the editor of the Journal for Muslim Minority Affairs, which was funded by Saudi national Abdullah Omar Naseef, who also funded al Qaeda. Huma herself worked there

Abedin's marriage to Anthony Weiner was likely a sham from the start, a cover for her relationship with Hillary. And she likely views the Midwest -- where she was born -- as flyover country, nothing more.

McDougal, on the other hand, is the Midwest. She is of Cherokee, Irish, and Scottish descent, and spent her formative years in Indiana and Michigan. From Wikipedia's description of her early life:

McDougal studied tap dance and ballet as a child. Her childhood dream, prior to teaching and modeling, was to become a ballerina. She attended River Valley High School and became a cheerleader, band member, color guard, volleyball and softball player, as well as Michigan state champion clarinet player for 4 years in a row in high school. Her high school nickname was "Barbie" due to her wholesome sweetness. After graduating high school in 1989, she attended Ferris State University at Big Rapids, Michigan, majoring in Elementary Education.

After Ferris State, McDougal's life took some unlikely turns: she essentially ended up making a career out of her looks, as some beautiful women do. But at heart, she is as American as cheerleading, Harley Davidsons, and Playboy centerfolds.

This seems to be what Trump finds appealing (even if he didn't select McDougal for all of those reasons).

Huma Abedin represents Hillary's America: increasingly LGBT, increasingly Muslim, and increasingly composed of aggrieved minority blocs demanding special privileges.

Take your choice.