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| No | 62% | 23 votes | Total: 37 votes | |
| Yes | 38% | 14 votes |
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Add to FavoritesRichard Nixon was the man that people loved to hate for much of his life time - but the new tapes (released in July of 2007) capture a peculiar moment. The 165 conversations all took place within 16 days in November of 1972 - most in the days immediately following Nixon's re-election for a second term - and mostly show Nixon talking frankly about filling his cabinet posts.
Nixon was a fierce politician, and his apologists can argue the tapes only show his raw calculations about key political demographics, including the important constituencies of Jewish and black voters. It's clear from the tapes that Nixon sees political advantage in choosing cabinet members from specific ethnic groups, sometimes even going to laughable extremes. ("G* Damn it, Chuck, we haven't got an Italian yet," Nixon screams at one point.) And while some have called Nixon's remarks "anti-Semetic," it's possible to interpret them in exactly the opposite way. When Nixon says "I don't basically want a 'house Jew', he may simply be resisting the idea of hiring a token representative for that demographic group, holding out for someone who can make a full contribution.
Preside nt Nixon uses many expletives on the tape, but there were even more on the original Watergate tapes. It's always represented a jarring contrast with Nixon's straight-laced public persona - but the new tapes don't reveal anything that wasn't already known.
And in some ways, the tapes even vindicate Nixon. In the 1995 movie "Nixon," Oliver Stone alleged that Nixon covered up information about a CIA plot to assassinate John F. Kennedy. But in fact, the new tapes show Nixon moving aggressively to declassify CIA files instead, including those relating to President Kennedy and his ties to the "Bay of Pigs" operatives. Granted, these moves were just as political - Nixon hoped to embarrass the popular Kennedy, consider their family to be his long-time political rivals.
America's National Archivist did offer some good news for the people who love to hate Nixon - they're releasing still more of Nixon's tapes in the middle of 2008. But if you're looking for tapes that damage Nixon's legacy, you're still better off with the "smoking gun" tape from 34 years ago. That tape showed Nixon's participating in a criminal cover-up, and eventually forced his resignation.
Learn more about this author, Moe Zilla.
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Yes
Nixon Again?
One of what seemed but a handful of supporters rallying the idealistic tenets most closely related to those of our beloved Bobby, I,amid the arid republican air of my, then, Florida home sat devastated as the caustic breath from a man diseased billowed and fell hued black upon all who would engorge themselves in his victory.
My first election as legal participant and the last for some time I discovered then amid the mounds of moronic verbiage the essence of our system electoral. It wasn't the act of losing, the crass nature of those stuffed shirts alike nor even the inherent insanity of the times but that inane, unforgiving almost satanic quality possessed by Nixon that so distanced me from anything of characteristic kinship to he.
The years stripped naked that man and nature seems to harvest even her most odious of offspring while forgiveness through time is a scent that entices the moral and we parry with
this ultimate decision until
With the class of a slug his words, in rudimentary renown spring forth once again stinking of the same profanity and reckless self supremacy that became his moniker during his dictatorship now echo's among the living. I am not aware of transgression spearheaded by gentle George targeting Nixon at all, what inspired Dick to such affront could only be termed malevolent and disgraceful.
Indeed ex-president Nixon contrary to previous personal belief that further damage was not possibly did further negatively affect his already dreadful legacy with these profane outbursts and unprovoked attacks on an opponent who stood for all that remained good in the socio/political arena.
Even as he listened to the embarrassing attacks, one callously after another, he sat at peace with himself and commented only briefly and most certain without contempt; the same as he conducted his professional career throughout.
Nixon, your profile must be now complete, your caricature ballooned and ballyhooed sufficient and forever recorded amid the anus, er annals of time.
Learn more about this author, S. james-T Ward.
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