'Deep Throat' has died...

[Carcharodon]

Yet...these Presidents are treated like nobles and Nixon is a cartoon villain on Futurama. Its stupid and its unfair.

Okay, well, come on: the guy's face and voice practically BEGGED for parody.

I've gotta be honest and say I don't know a lot about the guy as President, though.

 

[ShadowBoxing]

snicker

 

[DACrowe]

I have no problem with exposing the whole Watergate scandal, I am upset with the idiots who did it and tarnished the legacy of one of our greatest Presidents.

So, now we come down to it. You may have a point that there was some political retribution going on, but to defame Felt as nothing more than an "idiot" who tarnished the legacy of a great president?

Please. Some of Nixon's domestic policies (social security and the gold standard specifically) were well implemented and he opened trade with China. But the man was a crook, a thief and undeserving of being whispered among names like Lincoln, Washington, Roosevelt (both of them), etc.

How can a man who promised "peace with honor," and had brokered a peace accord in 1969 but waited three years to agree to it to protect assets we had in Saigon -- all the while thousands of Americans died and millions of tax dollars lost -- a great president? Not to mention he started an ILLEGAL civil war in Cambodia that cost TWO MILLION LIVES. He and Kissinger were so full of **** in how they handled it and as it has been said better in the past, "The joke ended when Kissinger won the Nobel Peace Prize." Kissinger only pushed the deal to make an October surprise in 1972 and Nixon did not want it! Nixon wanted to continue the war he promised to pull us out of! And then they announced the deal before the election (which his campaign had already committed needless felonies in to win) and ended up embarassing themselves as it wasn't secured until January, 1973. Not to mention if Nixon and Kissinger had it their way we would have continued a war in Cambodia, which we started.

In the meantime he compiled an enemy's list and was spying on everyone who walked into the White House. Never mind the felonies. In light of W., Nixon looks a lot better. But the man was a decent president domestically and a terrible diplomatic president (despite inroads made with both China and the Soviets). A total disaster. When you come down to it, he was a criminal...

calling Felt an idiot and Nixon "one of our greatest presidents" is just scary.

 

[StorminNorman]

So, now we come down to it. You may have a point that there was some political retribution going on, but to defame Felt as nothing more than an "idiot" who tarnished the legacy of a great president?

I never called Felt an idiot - I called Liddy and the Gang idiots. It also has nothing to do with what I feel on the issue, but the reality of it - Felt did what he did only because Nixon did not make him FBI Director. The guy learned at the lap of J. Edgar Hoover who had amazing power in Washington because he knew the dirty laundry of everyone worth knowing in Washington and would leak it when he wanted someone gone.

Please. Some of Nixon's domestic policies (social security and the gold standard specifically) were well implemented and he opened trade with China. But the man was a crook, a thief and undeserving of being whispered among names like Lincoln, Washington, Roosevelt (both of them), etc.

How was Nixon a thief? Also Roosevelt's internment camps give me a far greater sick feeling in my stomach than anything Nixon ever did. Lincoln suspending Habeas Corpus and considering arresting a Supreme Court Justice because he objected to it wasn't exactly a big hoorah either.

 

[DACrowe]

You're right, Lincoln and Roosevelt have two terrible, glaring and shameful mistakes in their presidency. But Lincoln also preserved the Union, prevented secession and began the process to the true end of slavery. FDR helped curb the Great Depression and if not end it, give Americans confidence and hope in capitalism again when all of that was dead in 1932 and prepared America for its finest hour and led us through the most harrowing test our country faced in the 20th century, WWII, with amazing aptitude and success (the war effort was, as you know, what pulled us out of the depression).

Nixon's entire presidency really circles around Vietnam and Watergate in the history books. He promised peace in 1968, could have given it to America in 1969, but chose to wait three years while thousands of Americans died and started a secret war in Camobdia, thinking a civil war that left millions dead would help the American cause.

Opening China and streamlining social security does not make up for that fact. And Nixon committing a felony, or as he says "When the president does it, it is not a crime," was just the final nail in the coffin. I admit he is not as bad as some people act in satirical fiction or the immense hatred for him in the '70s believed, but he was still a president who failed his social contract with America and defamed the office so much, Americans have never trusted a president again without a large degree of cynicism and disdain.

It still boggles my mind to think how one could rationalize this man to be in the same list of FDR and Lincoln. Or Washington, Teddy, Truman, etc.