The Tribune

With CHARLIE HARPER

MIKE Pence “suspended” his candidacy for next year’s presidential race over the weekend. When the former vice president exited the current GOP presidential race, Pence was in some danger of missing the cut for the next Republican debate which is set for next week. His withdrawal hardly caused a ripple.

Pence was reportedly chosen by Donald Trump as his 2016 running mate in order to reassure evangelical Christians – a growing and stout presence in national Republican politics – that Trump could somehow be trusted as a God-fearing man and politician. Also, Pence’s fundamentally quiet, bland, cautious personality complemented Trump’s bombast quite neatly. They actually created a potent political alliance, and a successful one.

That Pence could never escape Trump’s long political shadow is now taken as a matter of political gospel. And Pence’s political future was doomed from the moment he refused to break the law to decertify Joe Biden’s election in 2020.

American evangelical Christians need not be especially concerned at Pence’s departure from the national political scene, however. Their seat at the big table of Republican politics got a big boost with the election last week of Louisiana congressman Mike Johnson as the new compromise speaker of the House of Representatives in Washington. He is a relentless Christian and devoted follower and supporter of Trump.

Johnson has quietly and almost invisibly been involved in most of the extremism in recent GOP politics in the US. He’s a diligent advocate for abolishing abortion. He tried assiduously to round up supporters in the effort to delegitimise Biden’s victory in 2020.

Johnson’s early steps offer little hope of improvement in the House.

Delightful distraction of Swift and Kelce

But enough of all that. Rather than wallow in the world’s current bad news, let’s instead return to the delightful distractions of Taylor Swift.

In Denver over the weekend, the Kansas City Chiefs were upset by the Broncos, snapping a six-game winning streak. And Taylor Swift was not in attendance. Fortunately for us, however, Cosmopolitan Magazine was quick to reassure fans of both the reigning American princess and the Chiefs’ standout tight end Travis Kelce that all is well with this most watched US couple.

“Travis and Taylor are all in,” the magazine gushed, citing a TMZ report. “The two are very into each other and are enjoying their time together but are also planning for the future. Taylor starts her international tour in November, and Travis is planning to be there to spend time with her. Travis and Taylor are very serious about their careers, and the two bond over that and want to show support for each other whenever they can.”

Swift and Kelce’s romance has captivated America and boosted the profiles of both, though Taylor Swift is by far the bigger star.  According to numerous biographies, she grew up on a Christmas-tree farm near Philadelphia, where she would listen to predecessor country music goddesses Shania Twain, Faith Hill and LeAnn Rimes, watch VH1’s “Behind the Music,” and record demo tapes to send to Nashville. At 12, she sang the national anthem at a Philadelphia 76ers game.

Here’s how one critic described her work: After a heartbreaking betrayal by a pack of adolescent “mean girls” at a suburban mall, Swift was reborn as someone for whom there was not enough love and approval in the whole world. “She would write a song about the experience, and she would feel better. She would realise that this new person she had become was someone whose best work would come from her reactions to the world, her urgent metabolization of her pain into poetry.”

Now Swift has received this week a new accolade previously accorded to music legends of the caliber of the Beatles. The University of California at Berkeley has announced that it will next year offer to its students the option of a course about the pop icon, whose current Eras tour has reportedly made her a billionaire.

Appropriately the course is being offered by Berkeley’s business school. It will be called Artistry and Entrepreneurship: Taylor’s Version and start next spring, according to a report by NBC.

Here’s how the course is described by the university: “Swift’s ability to connect with listeners is unparalleled. Through lyricism, branding, and craft, we’ll explore how art and authenticity create enduring value and a viable enterprise.”

The phenomenon of the Swift-Kelce romance has led observers to search for a similarly profound alliance between pop star and athletic star. Some of the speculation has surrounded Tony Romo and Jessica Simpson, who were an item from 2007-2009. He was the quarterback of “America’s Team”, the Dallas Cowboys. She was an aspiring pop princess.

According to In Style magazine, Romo had a crush on Simpson before they even met. According to Jessica, she was watching a football game at home with her family in November 2007 when the former NFL star told reporters that she was his dream celebrity match.

“My family was like, ‘Did you just hear that?” Simpson said in the June 2008 issue of Glamour. “His picture came up, and I’m like, ‘He’s really cute.’ Then I heard [that I was his crush], and I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh!’”

When the couple went on their first date, “I had butterflies that you would not imagine,” Simpson recalled to Glamour. “I wanted to puke in the cup holder … It took me forever to put together an outfit!”

Alas, they broke up. But Simpson married another football star, and Romo has become the NFL’s best colour commentator on CBS’s lead game each Sunday.

Neither Romo nor Simpson was as accomplished in their fields as are Swift and Kelce. So maybe a better comparison can be found in Spain, home to the long relationship between talismanic Barcelona soccer star Gerard Pique and pop diva Shakira. Strikingly handsome and beautiful, these two were perhaps the most talked-about couple of the 2010s in Europe.

Pique, a brilliant defender, represented Spain 102 times and won the World Cup among many other distinctions. Shakira, born in Colombia, has compiled a catalog of 145 songs. She has sold over 95 million records, making her one of the most successful singers ever. Billboard magazine reported that as of 2023, she is the best-selling female Latin artist of all time.

This pair is also no longer together, but they were incandescent for over a decade together.

But it says here that the better comparison to Swift-Kelce may be found 70 years ago. That was Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe.

DiMaggio compiled a peerless Hall of Fame baseball career as a New York Yankees outfielder. He was nicknamed “The Yankee Clipper” and “Joltin’ Joe.” DiMaggio is widely considered one of the greatest baseball players of all time and may be best known for his 56-game hitting streak which still stands today as the longest in baseball history.

Marilyn Monroe was, well, Marilyn Monroe. She married Joe in 1952 on the eve of her greatest fame. The American dream was real for both of these superstars, as both had risen from humble backgrounds to achieve great fame in their chosen careers.

Before their first meeting, Monroe said “I expected a flashy New York sports type and instead I met this reserved guy who didn’t make a pass at me right away. He treated me like something special.”

Though sceptics at the time often highlighted their differences, Marilyn recalled strong common values including a shared desire for a stable home and children. “The truth is that we were very much alike,” Monroe said to author Ben Hecht in her memoir My Story. “My publicity, like Joe’s greatness, is something on the outside. It has nothing to do with what we actually are.”

The couple divorced, but after Marilyn died, Joe had roses delivered three times a week to her crypt for 20 years. He revealed that even after their divorce, the incomparable Frank Sinatra told him Marilyn had never stopped loving him.

Taylor and Travis have some distance to cover in order to emulate Joe and Marilyn. We can only wish them well as his fans in America (and perhaps in Germany after the Chiefs play the Dolphins in Frankfurt on Sunday morning) and her fans around the world obsess about them, partly to escape the deflating realities of American politics and of wars real and threatened all over the globe.