Old Weird Ward
Unless otherwise noted, that which is posted here is opinion, which is protected by the First Amendment to the US Constitution. If you don't like my opinions, go somewhere else. Nobody is forcing you to actually read this drivel.
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Thursday, June 02, 2005
- - - - - Deep Throat, Nixon, and Carter - - - - -
I've been peeved at Richard Nixon for years - ever since the stupid clot managed to screw up so spectacularly that he HAD to resign - and in such a miserable fashion that we managed to get hung up with Jimmy Carter when Ford failed of election.
Jerry Pournelle has a succinct summary of what happened from his viewpoint, HERE.
| Jimmy Carter was personally a good man but a very bad President. Nixon was personally not a good man at all, but he wasn't a bad President. |
Nixon was smart enough to pick some very good Cabinet members that you don't hardly ever hear about. There was Kissinger, of course. Then there was Laird as SecDef - never made a big noise, just made sure that the job got done. In various other capacities where Schultz, Weinburger, and Richardson - competent all, and very quiet about it.
What Nixon was not smart enough to do was to cut those idiot burglars loose immediately. What he should have said was: "I didn't know about this until after the fact. I now know, and I hereby cast these idiots into the void. This was completely unauthorized, and not only do I cast the Burglars into the void, their bosses are now fired, and turned over to the Justice Department for prosecution and ritual flaying."
Instead we had the sorry spectacle of All The President's Men, impeachment proceedings, a pardon, and James Earl Carter as President, with Brother Billy as the feckless sidekick.
Dammitall, Nixon could have gone down in history as one of the "good" Presidents - "good" as in competent and successful. Instead he goes down in history as a national humiliation, in spite of all the smart things that he accomplished.
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