General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Did anyone else realize this country was finished on January 20, 1981? [View all]jberryhill
(62,444 posts)Not the cute line about the dog, but the fact that he could give a complete financial disclosure in a few minutes.
It's interesting that people seize on the "I'm not a crook" line. He seems to have understood the "crook" allegation to be confined to some kind of financial impropriety, and not the manner in which he exercised, and in some instances abused, political power. He seems to have realized that in the "then you destroy yourself" line in his resignation speech to his staff. It's too bad that certain members of his staff, who went on to other things, never got that point, as it was a breeding ground for the likes of Karl Rove.
But what hits me about the itemized financial disclosure in the Checkers speech is that, at that time, his personal finances were quite modest for a run of the mill lawyer in California before the real estate boom, and solidly middle class.
His, "lets talk to them" approach to international relations was also consistent with his Quaker background, despite his efforts to obtain a "victory" in Vietnam before putting serious effort into the Paris Peace Talks.
But, as a politician, his response to perceived enemies was clean out of the Captain Queeg Memorial Ballpark.
IMHO, history will be kinder to Nixon than we were at the time.