In a tribute to Sargent Shriver, his father-in-law who just passed away, Arnold Schwarzengger recalls their first meeting:
Sarge was a political man, so around the dinner table when the conversation turned to politics, I was ready to participate. With passion and vigor and a thick accent, I avidly praised Richard Nixon.
I told them how coming from a socialist country, I was so impressed by Nixon’s determination to defeat communism and spread freedom. I went on and on about how Nixon had inspired me, made me believe in America, in its dream, and in all it has to offer.
Sarge had run for vice president on a ticket with George McGovern five years earlier, and they were defeated by Nixon and Spiro Agnew. So the fact that his daughter’s date was singing Nixon’s praises may have galled him. But from the first day I met him until the day he died, Sarge never tried to persuade me, his Republican son-in-law, to be a Democrat. He never tried to have a political debate.
Sarge was better than that.