"I am not a crook"..President Richard Nixon - Nov 17, 1973. (37 sec)

[Stuart G]

Yes, there was something as bad...this one..short, to the point, and ????? you judge..A person who was the President of the United States, at the time of this speech, says, "I am not a crook" He resigned Aug 8, 1974 and, although he was..not an "official crook"..many of his staff did spend time in jail..as crooks..One of them, a fellow named John Mitchel, did serve time as a crook, was the Attorney General of the United States, appointed by Nixon, and later became the head of re-election campaign in 1972...

[bucolic_frolic]

1. Seems so theatrical and rehearsed after 40 some years

and he looks like he's lying every sentence! There's some
hesitation at each point because he knows he's caught in a trap.
When you reach the point where you have to deny you're a crook,
there must be a reason, and that subtlety was lost on the American
public and even the press at that time.

Nixon had true credibility, even legitimacy in the early years of his
Presidency. We didn't know about the Vietnam secret operations,
Kissinger seemed pristine and 100% genuine, realpolitik was not a
concept Americans fathomed.

I doubt Nixon could get away with it all today. The internet has awakened
the world to political front men, liars, economic interests, corporate money,
bankers. Yet we face decades of sort it all out, filtering out the violent,
corrupt.