First Published in The Plain Truth in the Fall of 2009! Yes, we are ahead of our time!
There have been a lot of comparisons of Obama to Roosevelt or Reagan
or Kennedy but I am beginning to think he is more like Nixon. Yes, that
Nixon. Perhaps enough years have passed so that people can think of
Nixon in terms of something other than Watergate and his impeachment.
For if you can get past his ignoble ending you might be able to see his
brilliant beginning as President.
For all his faults, Nixon was a brilliant strategist. He was only 37
when he won his Senate seat after first serving in WWII and then being
a Congressman for his district. Two years later, at the age of just 39,
he became Eisenhower’s Vice President. I am sure there must have been a
lot of talk about someone of his young age and inexperience becoming
one heart beat away from the presidency. He lost his first bid for
presidency in the infamous race of 1960 against JFK where to this day
many believe that Kennedy’s father and Daley rigged the results from
Chicago thereby giving the win to JFK. He finally came to office in
1968 when he defeated Hubert Humphrey.
Republicans are currently outraged that Obama wants to talk to our
enemies. Yet no one recalls that Nixon with his Secretary of State
Kissinger broke all kinds of barriers and had numerous discussions with
our enemies including China and Russia. They also brokered the first
agreements between Israel and Egypt and Syria. I doubt if Clinton will
serve Obama as well as Kissinger did Nixon, but those who are loudly
arguing against President Obama’s decision to meet with almost anyone
should remember the past.
Additionally, just as President Obama is ending our involvement in
Iraq so did President Nixon end our involvement with Vietnam. Is it the
right thing to do? Maybe not for if history is to go by for pnce we
pulled out troops then North Vietnam quickly invaded and overtook South
Vietnam and still controls them today. Will Iraq someday invade and
take over Iran? I don’t know but we are opening the door for them when
we leave. And even if they don’t invade I wonder just how long
democracy will last before a group destroys the hard earned democracy
for a dictatorship or worse, rule by a religious imam.
On the domestic front, both Presidents faced economic problems. From
1968 to 1970 the Dow Jones fell 36% while inflation and unemployment
increased to 9% and 6.6% respectively and by 1974 inflation was 12%
resulting in even higher unemployment. After trying tax cuts and
following the economic advice of Milton 
Friedman,
Nixon did an about face after a huge Democrat mid term win. (And today
people are already predicting a Republican comeback in Obama’s midterm
elections of 2010.) To resolve the country’s “stagnation”, Nixon
imposed wages and prices controls, took us off the gold standard
resulting in the depreciation of the dollar and imposed deficit
spending. All of this was seen as a betrayal of Republican beliefs and
achieved little success resulting in the economic disaster which Carter
made even worse a few years later.
Obama, too, is facing economic disasters and is trying to resolve it
with sweeping changes. Only time will tell if it will work. But Obama
is already disgruntling some liberals by including ideas that are more
moderate than they would want. People today are also very concerned
about government now controlling private industry through the bailouts
and now actually owning a private bank. Yet no one remembers when Nixon
had the government control private businesses prices and wages when he
imposed price and wage freezes. Could you imagine the outrage today if
Obama declared what a business could charge or what you salary would
be? Yet that is exactly what happened nearly forty years ago. By the
way, it was a complete disaster and did nothing to help the economy
which might be a harbinger of things to come.
Almost no one remembers Nixon’s impact on the environment. Nixon
personally could care less about the environment but instead
implemented a strategy of being environmentally friendly in order to
attract moderate Democrats plus it would counter any more radical
proposals from the left. As part of his strategy he approved the
landmark National Environmental Policy Act and also approved
legislation to protect endangered species and threatened coastal areas
plus he enacted ocean dumping restrictions along with clean air
policies. President Obama, also has ideas on the environment and
climate change and he, too, hopes to enact new sweeping proposals.
In addition to being young brilliant political operatives who faced
similar foreign and economic problems both President Obama and
President Nixon have massive egos. Granted, to run for president you
need a big ego in the first place. But I think these two are different.
For their ego’s are also fueled by anger; Nixon’s at the rich and
powerful and Obama’s at the rich and white. Both may say they are for
the little guy but both are actually only for themselves. And they will
do almost anything to promote themselves; be it tossing aside dear
friends who have become obstacles or tapping the other side’s offices.
For with these massive egos also comes the 
belief
that they are above the law, even rules they have implemented. Think of
Obama’s self imposed rule of not hiring people associated with
lobbyists and then appoints someone with a lobbyist background to a
cabinet post! Or appoints a tax evader to the post which controls the
IRS!
Again and again Obama has shown he is above the law, just like Nixon
thought. So I can’t help but wonder if Obama will have the same kind of
ending as Nixon….
