[presidio9]

Hitchens was 14 years old when Kennedy was removed from office by Lee Oswald. After Nixon lost the election in 1960 (when Hitchens was 11), he famously retired from politics for 8 years to become a lawyer again. He did run unsuccessfully for Gov. of California in 1962. He did not appear again until the 1968 election (when Hitchens was 19). I am defintitely not arguing with you here. I'm merely pointing out, that Hitchens had not prior experience with the man whatsoever. At an early age he had already been programed to loath a man simply because he was a Republican.

Compare that to any Conservative you know, who is genuinely fond of at least a few liberal politicians and commentators.

[Cicero]

Without getting into these ins and outs, I think dead is correct about one thing. It was Nixon’s role in the Alger Hiss business and the McCarthy red hunt that first earned him the enduring, knee-jerk hatred of liberals.

Sure, he was a liberal in office. He gave us the EPA. He gave us the opening to Red China.

In the minds of knee-jerk liberals and their kids, he was responsible, along with Senator McCarthy, for the Salem witch trials and the Spanish Inquisition.