teedubbya wrote:I think he was better than several we've had since.
ya know, he is maybe the toughest of them all to place in a single slot. There were so many pros and cons, often confusing within the same events.
At the time of his presidency, the older brother of a still close friend was Kissinger's #1 aide. He even appeared on the Time or Newsweek cover with the gang as they landed in China...a much ballyhooed accomplishment triumphed by Nixon supporters as groundbreaking and unprecedented, as relations had been frozen for many years between our nation and China.
But in typical Nixonian inability to have clarity, many people with a smattering of knowledge of political history were aware that Nixon was probably the leading power in originally shutting the door on China in the 50's!
The guy burned both ends of many candles, could not stand success, was clearly paranoid (tapes, bugs, secrets) trust was not in his vocabulary.
Brilliant? Pretty likely.
Self destructive? Certainly.
But he left an undeniable stain on the highest office in the land, (fixing an election he was going to win in a landslide? WTF?) and from that point forward no administration has been able to be trusted...I don't mean loved or admired, and maybe there is a better word than "trusted" for what seems to be permanently removed from the relationship between the people and the Office.
Perhaps that is actually a good thing, perhaps the public was too naive, and if that is the case, once again Tricky ****** served a mixed drink of good result accidentally arising from self destructive crime.
