Ventura Visits Nixon Library
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YORBA LINDA — Even though he was at a presidential library Thursday, Jesse “The Body” Ventura said he has absolutely no intentions of running for president.
“I have no desire to go to Washington,” said the former bad-boy professional wrestler who stunned the nation in November when he was elected governor of Minnesota. “I’ve been inside the Beltway. I wrestled there. I don’t like it.”
Ventura talked to an overflow crowd of 600 at the Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace Thursday. Some visitors paid $15 just to sit in another room and watch the Minnesota governor on a large, closed-circuit TV.
The blunt-spoken political phenomenon kept on stunning and winning fans at the Nixon Library, even when wistfully recalling his youthful exploits at a Nevada brothel and tearing up at the mention of his hero, Muhammad Ali.
Nixon Foundation Director John H. Taylor began the visit by comparing Ventura to Thomas Jefferson, and a handful of admirers began singing “Hail to the Chief” when the governor and former Navy SEAL stepped before the crowd.
Ventura was in Southern California to plug his autobiography, “I Ain’t Got Time to Bleed: Reworking the Body Politic From the Bottom Up.”
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