Connecticut Gubernatorial Candidates Debate About Their Yachts

Yep. Just two old white guys, talking about what they named their yachts. Couldn’t have been more Connecticut if they went apple picking with Ralph Nader.

On Sunday, Democratic Governor Dannel P. Malloy and his Republican opponent Tom Foley sat down for a good old fashioned debate. The two discussed job creation, taxes, and other standard election debate topics, but then things took a more interesting turn. A viewer from Essex sent in a question, asking why Malloy’s yacht was named “Sapphire,” a gemstone and why Foley named his yacht “Odalisque,” a Turkish sex slave.

Malloy was quick to point out that he no longer has his yacht, but that it came with the name Sapphire when get bought it, and he decided not to change it. He added: “If I had a boat named after a sex slave, I would have changed the name” pointing out that Foley’s yacht is actually registered in a different country.

OH HERE WE GO. LET’S FUCKIN’ DO THIS. When asked if he was against yachts (this happened. There are hundreds of thousands of people in Connecticut who earn their livelihood servicing the boats of the rich.), he made a wonderfully passive aggressive remark about how NOT TOO MANY PEOPLE HE KNOWS own expensive yachts, haven’t paid income tax, and have their yachts named after a sex slave. I wonder who he was talking about. Then, via Raw Story:

“The governor is obviously not going for the boat owner vote,” Foley remarked.

“I’m certainly not going for the sex slave vote, either,” Malloy shot back.

Feisty. Personally I am equally annoyed, astonished, and entertained that they were talking about yachts for such a long time, but Foley went and ruined the whole affair by explaining why exactly his yacht was named ‘Odalisque,’ most commonly used to refer to slave-concubines in a Turkish harem and orientalist artistic depictions of such women.

“I’m a great enjoyer of the arts and culture and Odalisque are the names of many great paintings, including the masterwork by Ingres, they were used as models by Mattisse, so it was named for that,” Foley said.

“So it’s a highbrow name?” Davis asked.

“No, I think it is a very nice name. Boats usually have a female name associated with them because the gender of boats historically was a she. Many people name their boats after women or something feminine. Odalisque really means a beautiful woman, a beautiful thing in the art world. It doesn’t mean a sex slave,” Foley said.

Again, ‘odalisque’ simply refers to the concubines themselves—a beautiful thing in the art world, sure, but yeah, sex slaves.

“You have a daughter, do you think it is appropriate to have a boat named after a sex slave? Do you really think that’s appropriate?”

“Do I think it is appropriate to have a boat named after something that artists like Mattisse admired greatly and created the image of, yes, absolutely,” Foley replied.

This has been Two Dudes in Connecticut Talking About Yachts. Join us again soon for Two Dudes in Oregon Talking about Cold-Pressed Coffee.