Nixon or Bush?

[coloradodem2005]

I went up to Boulder to talk to a Professor about getting a letter of recommendation. The conversation turned to politics. He hates Bush. He said that Nixon was worse though because Watergate was a watershed event. No argument here. After Watergate, people no longer trusted the institution of the presidency and everyone became polarized. While much of the damage to the institution had already been done by Nixon, Bush has damaged our (America's) image around the world. So what is your argument.

[salinen]

1. Nixon was a sweet, thoughful man

only when compared to Chimp.

[sidwill]

3. I would

crawl across a field of feces encrusted broken glass shards to vote for Nixon over Bush.

Nixon may have been the first to taint the office but Bush has committed much worse sins than Nixon: Lying to justify a war, lying to congess on Medicare, consistently altering Government environmental reports for the benefit of his cronies, etc... these are all much worse than Nixons sins.


No comparison.

[FemaleDemfromMass]

2. I really disliked Nixon,

but I honestly have never hated anyone as much as Bush. I do believe he is worse, look at what this country will have to do to correct every wrong he has done. Nationally and Internationally.

[MAlibdem]

4. Nixon by a mile...

Hell, I might take Nixon over Clinton...def over lieberman

true, he was a crazy asshole who was corrupt...BUT he had relatively liberal policies, today he'd be a dem i think...not exactly a point of honor tho

[Bryan]

8. Who's worse? Bush.

Nixon was a grasping, mean, vindictive paranoiac who thought war was a noble pursuit and lying was a sacrament. But he was also a cunning diplomat and a self-made man who had respect for a day's work, and he had a root insecurity that, in our more forgiving moments, makes him almost pitiable.

Bush had every material advantage that one can have, and he squandered them all in favor of medicating himself stupid. If he'd had the fortitude to break from his vile family, he might have become an estimable man on his terms, if nobody else's.

Nixon abused the power of his office because he couldn't help himself. W. abuses power he hasn't earned because he thinks sovereign nations are either vassals or obstacles, and that everyone on this earth outside of a narrow circle of "quality folk" is fodder for corporate profit or empire-building. To cut it a little finer, Bush is the sort of person Nixon spent his life struggling to overcome.

[against all enemies]

5. Bush by far.

Nixon was a threat to the Constitution, by openly trying to undermine it. Bush is about to destroy the Constitution and the rest of the world by stealth. And if anybody thought the environment mattered, Nixon established the EPA, Bush will destroy the EPA. Who breathes air anyway?

[wyldwolf]

6. the republicans never forgave us for exposing Nixon...

...then getting the Reaganistas on Iran Contra. The whole Clinton witch hunt was a petty payback.

[Wwagsthedog]

7. "Worse Than Watergate"

The * administration according to John Dean. Good read but you may have known about most of it. More reinforcement for the importance of this year's general election.

[Hekate]

9. I thought I knew what it was to hate a politician...

...when Nixon was president, then along came the Buck-Naked Emperor.

Nixon was obsessive, secretive, sneaky and dishonest. He was called Tricky Dick for his dirty tricks long before Watergate. I don't think he had many actual friends.

He also signed significant environmental legislation, opened China, and a number of other worthwhile things. He was intelligent, well-read and well-informed. He understood foreign policy and how to work with other nations.

But Bush is not just one person, he is an entire network of ideological and religious fanatics who are hell-bent on domination in all spheres: national, international, religious, corporate, economic... They want to tell the rest of us what to think, what to believe, how to act... and they don't give a damn about the misery they spread in the process. They don't care if they turn the US into a Third World nation with no middle class as long as their friends attain more wealth and power. The more poor there are, the more willing soldiers. They don't care if they destroy our democracy -- indeed they intend to -- and they don't care if our republic is lost in the drive to Empire.

Nixon or Bush? As John Dean says, this is Worse than Watergate. Way worse.

Hekate

[TreasonousBastard]

10. He overstates it a bit, but...

he's spot on in a way.

Harry Truman said he was honored to hold an office that no President had ever sullied with personal corruption. He said that as he worried that Nixon could be the first one.

There were Presidents who were hated in the past, but Nixon was the first to make it personal and bring the taint of corruption into the West Wing.

Shakespeare would have loved that guy. Talk about your tragic flaws! Nixon was a self-made man with the promise of greatness and all paths open to him, but he chose the wrong ones at the critical times.

MacBeth, Richard III, Julius Caesar... it's all there.

What the Bard would have done with those tapes!

[AntiCoup2K4]

11. Watergate was likely worse in the end.

Not because of the break in or the cover up itself, but for the reason WHY Nixon and his associates were desperate to steal the documents in question. Just imagine the existence of evidence linking Tricky Dick, Poppy, and their friend E. Howard Hunt to a certain event 9 years previously.

In Dallas Texas......

BTW, Nixon was no "self made" man. He was handpicked as Ike's running mate by none other than Senator Prescott BUSH. And even before that, he helped Prescott's Nazi buddies get out of war crimes charges and move to this country. Tricky Dick was Bush Criminal Empire from day one.

[bigbillhaywood]

12. Bush is worse. His RW domestic policies make Nixon look like a Red.

[Kool Kitty]

14. And Bush's foreign policy

could get us all killed. I knew he was going to be bad when he got selected, but this is a disaster of epic proportions.
It seems I misunderestimated him. The worst, the absolute worst.

[Radical Activist]

13. Not trusting the Presidency is a good thing

Its too bad people forgot that Presidents lie. Maybe Bush wouldn't have gotten away with all of his own.

I was always amazed at how many young people on colleges campuses I heard say that we have to trust Bush and showed no doubts about his statements at all. They hadn't been taught the lessons of Watergate. Maybe this Iraq war will make them more skeptical. Although, the fact that so many college students believed Dean was a real liberal without looking at his record is not encouraging.

[mitchum]

15. I hate bush more than Reagan and Nixon combined

[kodi]

16. compared to bush, nixon was a patriot

as to the orignal remark about nixon that

people no longer trusted the institution of the presidency and everyone became polarized.


lbj caused that, not nixon.

nixon served in the navy, achieved thru his own efforts (be they repugnant to most) and at the least had a critical insight into foreign affairs and america's place in it.

he was one of the sharpest men ever to hold the presidency and without such a twisted soul could have been a great man.

bush?......a c-plus augustus, who i wouldn't piss on if his heart was on fire.

[Piperay]

17. Bush ABSOLUTELY the WORST

Nixon was smart but chimp is an idiot. I would rather have someone who is smart even if they are evil rather than an evil idiot, too stupid to make any kind of reasonable choice. Chimp is really scary :scared: because he is so dumb he is liable to bring this country to the brink if not over the cliff into nuclear war. :nuke: Nixon was too smart to have ever done anything like that.

[Atlanticist]

18. I'd take Nixon by a country mile

I remember reading in a fairly heavy "History of the USA" series that Nixon was the most liberal Republican President since TR. Remember, he finished the Great Society legislation that LBJ started. There's a strong argument that on domestic policy alone, he was more liberal than JFK.

Having said that, he was a crook who beshmirched (sp??) the name of the office. I agree that he was a truly Shakespearean character, who did great things from humble beginnings which ended in personal nemesis.

Bush is a nothing - he's a vacuous figurehead of an extreme right-wing cabal. Nixon would eat him for breakfast on so many levels.

Go Tricky Dicky !!! Your country needs you.