RORY: We have a breakfast mixer with members of Congress and the Senate.
LORELAI: Cool. See if you can steal me something off of Tom Daschle’s fruit plate.
Thomas “Tom” Daschle (born 1947), politician and lobbyist, a US Senator from South Dakota from 1987 to 2005. A member of the Democratic Party, he became U.S. Senate Minority Leader in 1995 and later the Majority Leader in 2001.
One small thing: Rory refers to their organised event as a “breakfast mixer”, but later on the sign at the event calls it a “brunch”.
PARIS: [sleep talking in background] Woodward . . . Bernstein . . . Harry Thomason. LORELAI: Is that Paris?
RORY: Yeah, she talks in her sleep . . . long in-depth arguments.
Paris references Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, previously mentioned, the journalists who broke the story of Richard Nixon and Watergate.
Harry Thomason (born 1940) [pictured], film and television director and producer, best known for the sitcom Designing Women (1986-1993). Thomason and his wife, Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, are close friends with former President Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary, the former Secretary of State, playing a major role in President Clinton’s election campaign. He produced a glowing biographical film called The Man From Hope, the centrepiece of the 1992 Democratic National Convention. Thomason served as co-chairman of the 1992 Presidential Inauguration Committee.
It is not completely clear whether Paris is arguing with Woodward, Bernstein, and Thomason in her dreams, or if she is quoting them in support of her dream arguments. I think the second?
LORELAI: You’re gone and the house is quiet and Bill Maher’s canceled. The name of the show was Politically Incorrect for God’s sake. Didn’t anybody read the title? He was supposed to say those things, dammit!
William “Bill” Maher (born 1956), comedian, actor, political commentator, and television host. He is known for his political satire and sociopolitical commentary, and his activism in support of animal rights and the legalisation of cannabis.
He hosted the award-winning late-night political talk show Politically Incorrect from 1993 to 2002; it was cancelled in June, with the final episode airing on July 5th. Many traced the show’s demise to comments Maher had made about the 9/11 attacks, where he disputed President George W. Bush’s claim that the attackers were cowards. Maher suggested that it was rather US policymakers who were the cowards. After this the show struggled to gain sponsorship. The show was replaced with Live! With Jimmy Kimmel.
In February 2003, Bill Maher began hosting a similar late-night show called Real Time with Bill Maher, which is still ongoing, so Lorelai only has six months before she can start watching this show instead.
LUKE: You know what people told me when I said you were coming here to live with me? They told me I was crazy, they told me I was insane, they told me to start writing letters to Jodie Foster.
Luke references John Hinckley Jr. (born 1955), a college drop-out from a wealthy family who attempted to assassinate president Ronald Reagan. Hinckley was reportedly seeking fame in a misguided effort to impress actress Jodie Foster (born Alicia Foster in 1962), with whom he had been obsessed since the 1976 film Taxi Driver, where Foster plays a sexually-trafficked twelve-year-old child – in the film, the disturbed protagonist plots to assassinate a presidential candidate (it’s based on a true story).
When Jodie Foster began attending Yale University, Hinckley moved to New Haven in order to stalk her, sending her dozens of letters and poems, and leaving messages on her answering machine. Believing that assassinating the president would somehow make him Foster’s equal, Hinckley fired a revolver six times at Ronald Reagan on March 30 1981, as he left the Hilton Hotel in Washington DC. Although Hinckley did not hit Reagan, he was wounded when a bullet ricocheted and hit him in the chest. He also wounded a police officer and a Secret Service agent, and critically injured a press secretary, who died from his wounds in 2014.
John Hinckley Jr. was found not guilty by reason of insanity in 1982, and transferred to psychiatric care. He was released from hospital in 2016 into his mother’s care under numerous restrictions. As of June 2022, Hinckley will be living freely in the community. He has a YouTube channel, where he self-publishes his own songs; they are also available on Spotify and other streaming sites.
PARIS: How’s this sound for a template? I have done my best. I have lost. Mr. Nixon has won. The democratic process has worked its will, so now let’s get on with the urgent task of uniting this country … Hubert Humphrey’s concession speech. Now, other than the part about Nixon, parts of it really seem to apply here.
Paris refers to Hubert Humphrey’s concession speech on 6 November 1968, acknowledging that Richard Nixon had been successful in his bid to become President of the United States by a narrow margin. It ended: “I have done my best. I have lost. Mr. Nixon has won. The democratic process has worked its will. Now let us get on with the urgent task of uniting this country”.
Paris says that Hubert Humphrey probably wasn’t considered very fun either, but this is one of a myriad of things that Paris gets completely wrong. Hubert Humphrey was known for his positive outlook and zest for life, a free spirit who loved every minute of being alive and wanted to make the world a happier place. Even when conceding defeat, he spoke about how much fun the campaign had been. It’s probably one of America’s tragedies that they failed to elect him as President.
RORY: Um, actually, I have to get home. I have to review my campaign platform …
LORELAI: Yes, our little Hillary Clinton here is running for student body vice president.
Hillary Clinton (born Hillary Rodham in 1947), former First Lady of the US from 1993-2001 as the wife of President Bill Clinton. In 2000, she was elected as the first female senator for New York, becoming the first First Lady to hold elected office and the first to serve in the Senate.
In a later season, we learn that Hillary Clinton is one of Rory’s heroines.
Referring to William Randolph Hearst (1863-1951), businessman, newspaper magnate, and politician, previously mentioned. Hearst developed the nation’s largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications. He was twice elected as a Democrat to the US House of Representatives, but was unsuccessful in his attempts to run for President in 1904, Mayor of New York in 1905 and 1909, and Governor of New York in 1906.
Like Hearst, Paris is the head of the newspaper and a presidential candidate. While running for President, Hearst shamelessly ran newspaper stories in favour of his own candidacy – Rory is suggesting Paris is doing the same thing by trying to influence the article Rory is writing about her speech.
William Randolph Hearst was unsuccessful in his bid for President, which might be a tease from Rory as well.
PARIS: John F. Kennedy once said, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country. Those eloquent words are just as relevant here in this hall today. What can you, the future of Chilton, of America, of the world, what can you do for your school?
John F. Kennedy, US president, previously discussed. The quote comes from John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address on January 20 1961, inspiring the nation to greater civic participation. The finely-crafted address was one of the shortest ever made, and afterwards, 75% of Americans polled approved of the new president.
LORELAI: I know. He’s been sitting there like the final days of Dick Nixon for almost an hour.
Richard Nixon (1913-1994), 37th President of the US from 1969 to 1974. The Watergate Affair, the name used to describe the secret and illegal activities undertaken by members of the Nixon administration, was brought to light by reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward in The Washington Post in 1972.
Nixon had hoped to weather the storm by refusing to leave, but impeachment hearings against him opened in May 1974. With loss of political support, and the near-certainty he would be impeached and removed from office, Nixon resigned on August 9 1974.
Lorelai may be specifically referring to the 1976 non-fiction book, The Final Days, by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, describing the last months of Richard Nixon’s presidency. It was a major commercial success, and was made into a television movie of the same name in 1989, with Lane Smith as Richard Nixon.
EMILY: Well, we intend to leave here completely different people.
LORELAI: Yes, I’m going to be Ted Nugent.
Theodore “Ted” Nugent (born 1948), songwriter, guitarist and activist. He initially gained fame as the lead guitarist and occasional lead vocalist of The Amboy Dukes, a psychedelic rock/hard rock band, before embarking on a solo career. His biggest hit was the 1977 song Cat Scratch Fever. In later years, Nugent has become known for his outspoken conservative political views and advocacy of hunting and gun ownership rights.
Ted Nugent seems to be someone that Lorelai sees as completely different to herself, politically speaking.
The Annotated Gilmore Girls 