This Week in Stanford Marriages


Two big marital stories regarding Stanford alums Tiger Woods and Chelsea Clinton this past week. First, [Chelsea Clinton got engaged to Marc Mezvinsky](http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/nov/30/chelsea-clinton-engaged-banker-boyfriend). That may all seem like a nice and heartwarming story, right? Wrong! In fact, this story may have deeper, more sinister roots.

In 1993, Bill Clinton presented his budget to Congress, and its fate hung in the balance. If President Clinton couldn’t pass his budget, the aspirations for his nascent presidency would be severely crippled. Interestingly, the decisive vote to pass the bill was cast by Rep. Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky (D-PA), Marc Mezvinsky’s mother. She subsequently lost her first (and only) re-election bid in 1994 and was summarily drummed out of office.

If this were ancient Rome, the explanation for this sequence would be a simple guarantee of the firstborn daughter for political support. Julius Caesar did it after all. In America, though the whole “selling one’s children for political support thing” is frowned on. Whether or not Julius Caesar was Bill Clinton’s ancient Roman analogue or not, it is an interesting series of coincidences nonetheless.


In perhaps more public news, Tiger Woods just fessed up to stepping out on his wife, [sorta](http://web.tigerwoods.com/news/article/200912027740572/news/). I’ve long admired Tiger Woods’ media strategy which has basically been, “I’m a golfer, leave me alone, buy a Buick,” and this statement is a continuation of that general sentiment. He released it through his own website, and has not spoken to the media about the incident, and I’m betting that when he eventually does, he will pick which questions he answers. Even when he’s losing, Tiger Woods wins. While it’s still unclear what exactly happened. we can sleep easy knowing that [the Chinese are on the case](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jV85rD0gfqo).