Some may agree or disagree but what Ben does do is get us to thinking of what it is that we believe in and if anyone should have an opinion of these event's it would be of our friend Ben.
Enjoy.
I often ask the Nixon bashers what he did wrong-the answer is invariably "a burglary and some kind of illegal campaign practice". That's it. If you ask if he was a good guy or bad guy, they can talk for hours, but factually, the cupboard is bare.
Thanks for the Stein post. Ben is one of my favorites. As to this article, you could tell he was a little p*ssed off--as he should be. I share his karmic wish...
Well, the China and EPA things I would count as black spots. That and the HMO Act which he cosponsored along with Teddy the Swimmer.
Ben Stein packs a powerful punch.
Wasn't he a speechwriter for Nixon and/or Reagan?
this is a good article.
He may have made certain subsequent Presidents more prone to keeping fewer records (and recordings) of Oval Office events....but if the Clinton Administration is any barometer....the operation of a criminal enterprise out of the Oval Office had actually been perfected, post Watergate,....not erradicated.
And if this was about abuse of power in the Office of the Preidency...then, again, Nixon was a piker when stacked up against his predecessor.
If this was about Nixon, as a person, and deposing him as President...well then, Woodward and Bernstein, hand in hand with Feldt, should take a bow....
And then they should survey the legacy of their toppling of Nixon:
Pressures brought to bear in Washington detracted from Nixon's ability to obtain a better peace at the end of the Kennedy/Johnson war in Southeast Asia....and the rest of the dominoes fell with the rise of the Pathet Lao and Kmeher Rouge.
(The Plain of Jars would more than likely be remembered differently today had Nixon not been hounded from office.)
There is no way Gerry Ford (a mere caretaker for the end of Nixon's term, but a sentimental favorite President of mine for stepping in to steer the nation through that turbulent time. He did it abely, if not well) would ever have run for President except from the office of the President....and so, Carter was ushered in as President....a man who otherwise would have been a footnote in the history books of Georgia as just one more mediocre former Governor set the stage for:
The Islamic revolution in Iran
The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (with its "domino effect" in the rise of the Taliban)
The Camp David accords that were direct causation of the assasination of Anwar Sadat
The ceding of the Panama Canal to the Chinese! (If it was only about lease payments to the Panamanian government, then why didn't we offer that, as opposed to giving control of the canal away? Only Carter could say!)
Then there was hyper inflation and stagnant economy of the late 70's....concurrent (not necessarily for reasons of causation, although it is possibly linked) with the draw down in America's armed forces.
("All for the want of a nail on the shoe of a horse", as the rhyme goes....)
And so, let us take pause to cheer these champions of America....those who were the catalysts of such earth shattering change for the worse that brought us through tumult to a time when, not tens, but hundreds of FBI files could find their way mysteriously to the office of the Preisident...and nothing is said in the press, for this is not Nixon...and to a time when criminal enterprises and purjury are commonplace in the Oval Office...but these do not "rise to the level of impeachment".
Yes...a true man of greatmess is Mr. Feldt.
He should rank right up there with Gavrilo Princip, in history, for all of the supposed change and good was accomplished by his famous act.
Thanks for posting this excellent piece.
The father of modern day affirmative action quotas, price fixing, pure keynesian economics, growth of government, the taking us off the gold standard, etc.
Michael Moore (who I loathe) is at least honest enough to admit that Nixon was more liberal in policy then every single president who came after him.
PING
One of Ben's best offerings to date. I know that many of my Freeper friends share my respect for Ben and his magnificent essays.
So with no further yakking, enjoy.
Richard Nixon? Well, I respect Ben Stein's opinion sufficiently that I'll have to give "peacemaker by any means" Richard Nixon some thought.
Nixon was a great president. He cracked down on the communist Viet Cong in Cambodia and opened up relations with China.
Sometimes the best essays are the short ones.
Ben Stein is really good! I was supposed to see him in St. Louis with my local college republican group a few months back but he cancelled due to an illness. Oh well!
The Khmer Rouge was not in power when Nixon bombed, and then invaded, Cambodia. So, this article is very mistaken.
The U.S. under Nixon invaded Cambodia, which had been a neutral power during the war in Vietnam. The subsequent chaos of this invasion assisted the Khmer Rouge to gain power in Cambodia.
The Khmer Rouge did not gain power in Cambodia by its' own accord. The weakness of the Cambodian royalty to deal with this small extremist party was caused largely by American involvement in Cambodia.
Stein is 100% right about the consequences for Vietnam and Cambodia. But the Left and the liberals will never, ever, accept responsibility for the consequences of their actions. That is beyond the limits of their personalities.
It should be noted that a major reason the Left was after Nixon was that he beat their hero, McGovern, by a landslide.
I have been a fan of Ben Stein (truly the King of All Media) for decades, from Ferris Buehler to this latest essay. I wrote a note to American Spectator praising it and Ben wrote me a quick email. I was very happy about hearing from him.
I used to read about his father in the Nixon White House, so I think I go a long ways back with Ben's family. I have watched his son grow up in print.
The point in my AS response was: Watergate became a historical turning point in the worst sense of the word. The savage, illegal, and unconstitutional conduct of the opposition press and Democratic Party set the stage for undermining the trust in all leadership in America. We have never recovered as a nation from that.
I thought Nixon was wrong about most things and too eager to please the liberals who loathed him. However, nothing he did excused the rabid attacks against him. Those of us who are older will remember when such attacks were considered unseemly and more likely to indict the attacker than the attacked. Now we have an even worse Radical Left stooping to tactics that make the Watergate antagonists look normal and sane in comparison.
Let us not forget that Hillary (Lady Macbeth) used Watergate for her teething ring and learned how much could be done with enough biting, scratching, weeping, and wetting. Watergate taught her and the others how to win through destruction, how to avoid the rule of law by using hysterical manipulation. She helped make the Clinton White House the worst reign of terror our country has known.
That said; am making copies of this. . .will share them; ie leave on windshield on any car that has a Kerry sticker - or any such car 'otherwise identified'. . .and leave a few behind at Starbucks. . .
Think O'Reilly should read this as well. . .though he would probably take more than a few exceptions . . .
I love Ben Stein.
Always have.