re: #288 HappyWarrior

I really think if not for Watergate and having a shitty disposition, Nixon would be remembered differently. We want to like our presidents. We love Lincoln’s folksiness, FDR’s optimism, JFK’s hopes for the future, Reagan’s sunniness, and Clinton’s empathy. Nixon was a smart guy, perhaps one of the smartest men ever to be president but he really lacked some of the traits that people really like in a leader. I’m always amazed that despite this, he still managed to be on a presidential ticket five times which is the record along with FDR for a person running on a major party ticket.

It’s questionable if Nixon would ever have been president were it not for the Civil Right Act and the subsequent spike in fear amongst the Southern white populace that gave rise to the “Southern Strategy.” To quote General Taylor:

“Bullshit! I know Nixon personally. He lugs a trainload of shit behind him that could fertilize the Sinai. Why, I wouldn’t buy an apple from the son of a bitch and I consider him a good, close, personal friend. “