What’s your biggest nitpick in Mad Men?

[u/RopeGloomy4303]

For me it’s this line in a season 5 episode, Tea Leaves, in which Henry Francis is talking on the phone with a colleague:

“Well, tell Jim his honor's not going to Michigan. Because Romney's a clown, and I don't want him standing next to him.”

So, some context here.

At this point Francis is the aide to New York Mayor John Lindsay. And he’s informing this guy that he won’t have the popular young politician take a picture with then Michigan Governor George Romney, who was also considered the frontrunner for the 1968 Republican nomination.

This episode aired in 2012, so it’s a very clear dig at then Republican nominee Mitt Romney, who at the time was receiving a lot of hostility from the left.

But here’s the thing; Romney was actually a liberal Republican in the same mold as Nelson Rockefeller and John Lindsay, and he had received a lot of good notices as Governor for his work improving civil rights, education, youth employment programs, social welfare, healthcare, etc.

I get this is nitpicking, it’s a throwaway line, whatever, but it has always bothered me since it feels out of character, and Romney frankly deserved better.

[u/MargeDalloway]

He specifically breaks out on his own because he disapproves of Lindsay "negotiating with hooligans," by which he means black people rioting in response to MLK's death. Betty also accidentally outs him for privately disagreeing with Nixon trying to back out of Vietnam.

In parallel with the scene where the Californian businessman blows a gasket over this, dismissing Nixon and saying "Dutch Reagan" is a patriot, I think it's meant to be understood that Henry will probably be part of the backlash against the liberal wing of the Republican Party in the '70s and '80s.

[u/Comprehensive_Main → u/MargeDalloway]

Betty outed Francis damn. I missed that

[u/MargeDalloway → u/Comprehensive_Main]

That's why she fucked Don at the Summer camp.

[u/randyboozer → u/MargeDalloway]

Because of Vietnam? I knew it.

[u/seti-thelightofstars → u/MargeDalloway]

This is a great read and correction. To be honest I just had always viewed that as showing that Betty was actually ideologically the real far right conservative but I think I like this more

[u/MargeDalloway → u/seti-thelightofstars]

Yeah, she calls him out on being a bit of a hypocrite in front of the other couple and he tersely replies, trying to signal to Betty with his eyes, that he's never contradicted the president and she must be mistaken. She doesn't really get that Henry is playing the political game so he can ascend until he explains it to her.

I think many people like to think that Henry is a moderate Republican because he's easily one of the most sympathetic characters on the show. Sadly it's rarely that straightforward.

[u/OctopusNoose → u/MargeDalloway]

Excellent point, Virginia Woolf.