# Even Nixon looks good after 6 years of Bush **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 15, 2006, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/even-nixon-looks-good-after-6-years-of-bush/380508 "2006-11-15T12:00:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2006, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/even-nixon-looks-good-after-6-years-of-bush/380508/1 "2006-11-15T12:00:21Z")
Inspired by [Aeschines’s thread.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=395969&page=1&pp=50) I used to hang a lot of resentment on Richard Nixon. He was the guy who shattered the average American’s faith in benign government. He was a liar and a crook. I was really outraged when they practically sanctified him after his death during the Clinton years. I thought he deserved to be buried in an unmarked grave in an unknown location. But after 6 years of the current Pes, Nixon is looking better and better. At least he KNEW his men were committing crimes and had the decency to try and hide it. Bush pretty nuch boasts about how he will “interpret” the Constitution and do whatever he wants. . Nixon didn’t START the Vietnam war, and though he did a poor job of ending it, he DID end it. I never thought I would have a single good thing to say about Nixon, but I have to admit he was 10 times the President Bush is. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2006, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/even-nixon-looks-good-after-6-years-of-bush/380508/2 "2006-11-15T12:05:29Z")
Well, would you rather have a leader who crushes his enemies or one who blissfully ignores them? ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2006, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/even-nixon-looks-good-after-6-years-of-bush/380508/3 "2006-11-15T12:08:00Z")
Actually, I should expand on that a little: would you rather have a leader who tells you a lie, or a leader who seems to have convinced himself that it’s not _really_ a lie because all counter-evidence is ignored as irrelevant? ---
**Author:** ![tagos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@tagos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tagos)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2006, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/even-nixon-looks-good-after-6-years-of-bush/380508/4 "2006-11-15T12:12:29Z")
[QUOTE=Boyo Jim] Nixon didn’t START the Vietnam war, and though he did a poor job of ending it, he DID end it. [/QUOTE] Nitpick. Nixon cut and ran, ending direct US involvement. The Vietnam Civil War went on until the north won it. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2006, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/even-nixon-looks-good-after-6-years-of-bush/380508/5 "2006-11-15T12:16:55Z")
Nixon was a fairly competent president with a fatal character flaw. At least he knew when he was telling the truth and when he wasn’t. And he didn’t start a war nor did he ruin the nation’s good name by authorizing the use of torture. Bush is a dry drunk toddler trying to sit in the grownup’s chair. He got to play with daddy’s government, broke it, and now daddy’s people have to fix it for him. ---
**Author:** ![FormerMarineGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/65b543/32.png) [@FormerMarineGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FormerMarineGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2006, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/even-nixon-looks-good-after-6-years-of-bush/380508/6 "2006-11-15T14:07:00Z")
What a surprise! Another Bush bashing thread! ---
**Author:** ![tagos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@tagos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tagos)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2006, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/even-nixon-looks-good-after-6-years-of-bush/380508/7 "2006-11-15T14:19:10Z")
[QUOTE=FormerMarineGuy] What a surprise! Another Bush bashing thread! [/QUOTE] So? While one single person is willing to waste their breath or electrons to defend the worst president in 200 years he needs bashing (and by ‘bashing’ I mean ‘having their noses rubbed his many faults, flaw, inadequancies and stupidities like a particualry dense puppy’) pointed out at every opportunity. ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2006, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/even-nixon-looks-good-after-6-years-of-bush/380508/8 "2006-11-15T14:27:40Z")
[QUOTE=BobLibDem] Nixon was a fairly competent president with a fatal character flaw. At least he knew when he was telling the truth and when he wasn’t. And he didn’t start a war nor did he ruin the nation’s good name by authorizing the use of torture. Bush is a dry drunk toddler trying to sit in the grownup’s chair. He got to play with daddy’s government, broke it, and now daddy’s people have to fix it for him. [/QUOTE] I couldn’t have said it better. And at least with Watergate, the investigative committee was doing something worthwhile, not like looking for cum stains on a blue dress. :rolleyes: Good ole W-may history ignore you as you did reality for these many years… ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2006, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/even-nixon-looks-good-after-6-years-of-bush/380508/9 "2006-11-15T14:43:07Z")
[QUOTE=tagos] So? While one single person is willing to waste their breath or electrons to defend the worst president in 200 years he needs bashing (and by ‘bashing’ I mean ‘having their noses rubbed his many faults, flaw, inadequancies and stupidities like a particualry dense puppy’) pointed out at every opportunity. [/QUOTE] That is just plain wrong, how could you make such a horrible mistake. Bush is the worst president in 217 years! Otherwise, I agree with your point and especially \*\*BobLibDem \*\* points. Jim ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2006, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/even-nixon-looks-good-after-6-years-of-bush/380508/10 "2006-11-15T14:45:34Z")
Bush being worse than Nixon is old news. I reached that conclusion [nearly three years ago](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=4487162&postcount=27). ---
**Author:** ![FormerMarineGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/65b543/32.png) [@FormerMarineGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FormerMarineGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2006, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/even-nixon-looks-good-after-6-years-of-bush/380508/11 "2006-11-15T14:53:08Z")
[QUOTE=tagos] So? While one single person is willing to waste their breath or electrons to defend the worst president in 200 years he needs bashing (and by ‘bashing’ I mean ‘having their noses rubbed his many faults, flaw, inadequancies and stupidities like a particualry dense puppy’) pointed out at every opportunity. [/QUOTE] I am definitely not going to defend him, but I doubt he could be labeled the worst president in 200 years! Buchanan would have to top him, along with Pierce and probably a couple of others. I know I am going to get bashed along with Bush here, but oh well. I was not on this board when Clinton was president (not sure if this board was even here) so I do not know about how the reaction is to a Democrat president. Perhaps I will see when the next president is elected (who will probably be Democrat). For now, I believe that hindsight is 20/20 and although Bush made some mistakes, he was president at a bad time in American History. Do I agree with everything he has done? Not at all. I don’t think there is an American president that has not made a mistake or done questionable things that irate the American public. Still, I look forward to reading more and more about how bad Bush is. ---
**Author:** ![tagos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@tagos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tagos)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2006, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/even-nixon-looks-good-after-6-years-of-bush/380508/12 "2006-11-15T14:58:35Z")
[QUOTE=What Exit?] That is just plain wrong, how could you make such a horrible mistake. Bush is the worst president in 217 years! Otherwise, I agree with your point and especially \*\*BobLibDem \*\* points. Jim [/QUOTE] You are of course totally correct. I saw an interview with him on the BBC the other day, discussing his meeting with the ‘Pull Junior’s Ass Out of the Fire for Me’ Group. The first thing he said was, (and you have to imagine that look he gets when he thinks he’s about to say something clever, the one that resembles a chimpanzee when it’s just managed to force the star shape into the square hole). “They want us to win in Iraq, just as much as me.” Leaving aside the observation that if he really wanted to succeed in Iraq he went about it in a pretty bizarre way, he’s saying. “These people aren’t traitors even though they have reservations about how things are going.” ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2006, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/even-nixon-looks-good-after-6-years-of-bush/380508/13 "2006-11-15T15:08:15Z")
Ah, an opportunity to quote Dr Hunter S Thompson… > [@](#): > > “He Was a Crook” > By HUNTER S. THOMPSON > > MEMO FROM THE NATIONAL AFFAIRS DESK > > DATE: MAY 1, 1994 > > FROM: DR. HUNTER S. THOMPSON > > SUBJECT: THE DEATH OF RICHARD NIXON: > > NOTES ON THE PASSING OF AN AMERICAN MONSTER…HE WAS A LIAR AND A QUITTER, AND HE SHOULD HAVE BEEN BURIED AT SEA. …BUT HE WAS, AFTER ALL, THE PRESIDENT. > > “And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is becoming the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.”–REVELATION 18:2 > > Richard Nixon is gone now and I am poorer for it. He was the real thing–a political monster straight out of Grendel and a very dangerous enemy. He could shake your hand and stab you in the back at the same time. He lied to his friends and betrayed the trust of his family. Not even Gerald Ford, the unhappy ex-president who pardoned Nixon and kept him out of prison, was immune to the evil fallout. Ford, who believes strongly in Heaven and Hell, has told more than one of his celebrity golf partners that I know I will go to hell, because I pardoned Richard Nixon." > > I have had my own bloody relationship with Nixon for many years, but I am not worried about it landing me in hell with him. I have already been there with that bastard, and I am a better person for it. Nixon had the unique ability to make his enemies seem honorable, and we developed a keen sense of fraternity. Some of my best friends have hated Nixon all their lives. My mother hates Nixon, my son hates Nixon, I hate Nixon, and this hatred has brought us together. There’s much more masterful invective here: [www.counterpunch.org/thompson02212005.html](http://www.counterpunch.org/thompson02212005.html) But Bush is worse. Those suggesting other presidents were worse than Bush need to detail some of their shortcomings. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2006, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/even-nixon-looks-good-after-6-years-of-bush/380508/14 "2006-11-15T15:19:03Z")
[QUOTE=Bridget Burke] … But Bush is worse. Those suggesting other presidents were worse than Bush need to detail some of their shortcomings. [/QUOTE] Nixon was a fairly good President and an utterly reprehensible man. He was nasty, backstabbing, lying, racist and worked with Senator McCarthy for a while. There is little to recommend him as a human. His record as President is fairly impressive. I do not think Bush is evil, though he has screwed up royally and surrounded himself with Evil. He is incompetent to the point of criminal neglect and has in my opinion caused more damage to the US than any President in history. **FormerMarineGuy** : I am curious, what is it about Buchanan & Pierce that made them worse. I am missing some knowledge here. Jim ---
**Author:** ![tagos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@tagos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tagos)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2006, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/even-nixon-looks-good-after-6-years-of-bush/380508/15 "2006-11-15T15:31:04Z")
[QUOTE=What Exit?] Nixon was a fairly good President and an utterly reprehensible man. He was nasty, backstabbing, lying, racist and worked with Senator McCarthy for a while. There is little to recommend him as a human. His record as President is fairly impressive. I do not think Bush is evil, though he has screwed up royally and surrounded himself with Evil. He is incompetent to the point of criminal neglect and has in my opinion caused more damage to the US than any President in history. **FormerMarineGuy** : I am curious, what is it about Buchanan & Pierce that made them worse. I am missing some knowledge here. Jim [/QUOTE] Didn’t Buchanan send an airship armada to secretly bomb Georgia and thereby kick off the entire Civil War? And unless my knowledge of american history is entirely wrong wasn’t Pierce the guy that invaded Mexico in the hunt for plague rat breeding pits? ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2006, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/even-nixon-looks-good-after-6-years-of-bush/380508/16 "2006-11-15T15:42:44Z")
[QUOTE=What Exit?] I do not think Bush is evil, though he has screwed up royally and surrounded himself with Evil. He is incompetent to the point of criminal neglect and has in my opinion caused more damage to the US than any President in history. **FormerMarineGuy** : I am curious, what is it about Buchanan & Pierce that made them worse. I am missing some knowledge here. Jim [/QUOTE] > **[James Buchanan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Buchanan)** > > James Buchanan Jr.\[a\] (April 23, 1791 – June 1, 1868) was the 15th president of the United States, serving from 1857 to 1861. A Democrat from Pennsylvania, he upheld a pro-slavery interpretation of the U.S. Constitution that did little to reverse the sectional crisis between the North and South. In his final months in office, seven Southern states seceded, forming the Confederacy. On April 12, 1861, Confederate forces attacked Fort Sumter, starting the American Civil War. During his time as... Buchanan basically just sat there & dithered while the South seceded. He was too dumb or too nerveless to act, & just dumped the whole Civil War into Lincoln’s lap. He didn’t even fire up recruiting or purchasing for the Regular Army, for gosh sake! Still, Bush comes in #2. Bush _often_ reminds me of “#2”. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2006, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/even-nixon-looks-good-after-6-years-of-bush/380508/17 "2006-11-15T15:45:37Z")
[QUOTE=tagos] Didn’t Buchanan send an airship armada to secretly bomb Georgia and thereby kick off the entire Civil War? And unless my knowledge of american history is entirely wrong wasn’t Pierce the guy that invaded Mexico in the hunt for plague rat breeding pits? [/QUOTE] 😃 I understand that Pierce defenders say the “plague rat breeding pits” did exist, but they were transfered secretly to Guatemala before the invasion. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2006, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/even-nixon-looks-good-after-6-years-of-bush/380508/18 "2006-11-15T15:47:21Z")
[QUOTE=FormerMarineGuy] What a surprise! Another Bush bashing thread! [/QUOTE] The thread was accurately titled. Why did you expect otherwise? ---
**Author:** ![FormerMarineGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/65b543/32.png) [@FormerMarineGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FormerMarineGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2006, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/even-nixon-looks-good-after-6-years-of-bush/380508/19 "2006-11-15T15:47:56Z")
[QUOTE=What Exit?] **FormerMarineGuy** : I am curious, what is it about Buchanan & Pierce that made them worse. I am missing some knowledge here. Jim [/QUOTE] I don’t want to hijack the pit with specifics on Buchanan and Pierce, but: Buchanan-Dred Scot vs. Sanford, his actions concerning the Civil War, he messed up the Democrat Party with his poor leadership (guess could be compared to Bush if you desire), and his severe depression while in office. Pierce-horrible leadership, alchoholism, also his actions during the Civil War, Gadsden Purchase. I can also add Andrew Johnson and Grant (to keep a Republican on the list). ---
**Author:** ![FormerMarineGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/65b543/32.png) [@FormerMarineGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FormerMarineGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2006, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/even-nixon-looks-good-after-6-years-of-bush/380508/20 "2006-11-15T15:49:12Z")
[QUOTE=Revtim] The thread was accurately titled. Why did you expect otherwise? [/QUOTE] I did not expect otherwise at all. Actually, I am not surprised and was being sarcastic. Either way, it creates for a better thread in the pit. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/even-nixon-looks-good-after-6-years-of-bush/380508.md?page=2)