“Nixon didn’t do anything.”
Nixon wasn’t involved in the break-in, but he WAS involved in the cover-up. Which was his big screw-up. Had he simply come out and said, “There is no justification for this break-in, and the people responsible will be held accountable. Since it happened on my watch, and ‘the buck stops here,’ I will make damn sure they are,” he would have weathered the storm and served out his presidency. But that was just not in his character. Which is a shame, because I think he could have been a great president if he didn’t have that personality flaw.
Great point
By legitimate skullduggery I mean the countless classified projects and initiatives that any President has to sign off on almost every day. I'm thinking specifically of the Glomar Explorer project that lifted Soviet submarine K-129 off the seabed 17,000 feet down, but there were countless others that we've never found out about.
Nixon had to sign off on Glomar explorer.
That 1972 result. 49 states, over 60% of the national popular vote (not even Reagan in 1984 did the latter). Will never see that again in a U.S. presidential election in any of our lifetimes.
“””Nixon wasn’t involved in the break-in, but he WAS involved in the cover-up. Which was his big screw-up. Had he simply come out and said, “There is no justification for this break-in, and the people responsible will be held accountable. Since it happened on my watch, and ‘the buck stops here,’ I will make damn sure they are,” he would have weathered the storm and served out his presidency. But that was just not in his character. Which is a shame, because I think he could have been a great president if he didn’t have that personality flaw.”””
I agree. Going into the 1972 election, Nixon was a shoo-in to win with a huge majority.
Since we have just gone through a ‘deep state’ removal of Trump in 2020, it is very likely the ‘deep state’ did what they did at Watergate to get rid of Nixon.
There are powerful people who control the political machines more than we peons can imagine.
…which is what EVERY administration has done regularly ever since… and probably before..
I always had the impression that when told about the break in Nixon was like “huh? OK, just take care of it” and promptly forgot all about it because he knew his predecessors were guilty of far far worse.
He was taken by complete surprise when he realized the rats & media had taken a mickey mouse misdemeanor and used to defeat a guy they had no hope of beating in a straight up election.
[ “Nixon didn’t do anything.”
Nixon wasn’t involved in the break-in, but he WAS involved in the cover-up. Which was his big screw-up. Had he simply come out and said, “There is no justification for this break-in, and the people responsible will be held accountable. Since it happened on my watch, and ‘the buck stops here,’ I will make damn sure they are,” he would have weathered the storm and served out his presidency. But that was just not in his character. Which is a shame, because I think he could have been a great president if he didn’t have that personality flaw. ]
Nixon saw the rise of the deep state ( 1952-1970’s) and I think he feared them which is what drove him in the corner and made him think he had to cover up.
50 years later. Maybe Nixon won't get impeached after all. But back then, Nixon had no control of the narrative.
The left was coming for Nixon no matter what he said or did. They had had it in for him for years for outing their hero, Alger Hiss, as a Soviet spy working for Dim presidents.
Standing by your faithful employees is hardly a flaw. Failing to recognize that what they did was illegal, though, certainly is.