[Rapscallion]

Watergate in 1972 was about political dirty tricks. So is this. Appoint a special prosecutor now. It will save millions and perhaps billions of dollars.

[Verginius Rufus]

By the time of the Watergate break-in (June 17, 1972), Nixon's re-election was a sure thing...the only thing to be gained by the dirty tricks was to turn a solid win into a landslide. If Muskie had been the Democratic nominee, it would have been a closer race (although my guess is that Nixon still would have won easily), but McGovern had knocked out Muskie well before the break-in.

In 2012, in contrast, the race was close until the end, and Obama won largely because of better turn-out-the-vote efforts (along with some voter fraud). Disabling the Tea Party may have made the difference in the outcome.