re: #37 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

It is almost an affront to Nixon to compare the two. And it is not merely a matter of intelligence, it is a matter of pure cussedness and unwillingness to learn.
Nixon had many faults but had some redeeming features and at least had a record of public service before assuming the Presidency.

I would totally agree. Nixon wasn’t such a bad president overall, but he had deep character flaws that proved his undoing. And after all, he did inherit the ill-conceived Vietnamese conflict, though he didn’t handle it any better than his predecessors. I also think he listened to Kissinger way too much.

Having lived through these times (born 1954), despite the Vietnam War, the NIXON=SS placards in the demonstrations here, etc, etc, the US was still widely admired and envied, thanks to the culture of the 60s and 70s. This is no longer the case today; the best I see now is bafflement, but there is also a lot of reviling, contempt and exasperation. The amount of damage Trump has done to the US brand is literally indescribable.