Why did Nixon win 49 out of 50 states for re-election?

ginscpy

Senior Member
Sep 10, 2010
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if he was such a terrible president??

McGovern won his own state - if only Gore had been able to do that in 2000
 
Nixon was a political and foreign policy genius who was corrupt to the core. The Southern Strategy of 1968 began the shifting of the South white votes into the GOP column. He made momentous strides with the Soviet Union, Red China, and was not afraid to hold the North Viets' feet to the fire with his massive bombing campaigns in the North.

The Dems simply had no one who could hold a candle to him.
 
You woulnda have thought so listening to Hanoi Jane
 
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My Grandfather flew a mission with McGovern as his co-pilot. I wonder what he thought about McGovern as he saw him run in 1972?

BoneMcGovern.jpg
 
My Grandfather flew a mission with McGovern as his co-pilot. I wonder what he thought about McGovern as he saw him run in 1972?

BoneMcGovern.jpg

While I respect(ed) McGoverns service in WW2 - he would have made a terrible president.

One of those I HAVE SEEN WAR turned pacifist-types.
 
As I recall, McGovern got MA, RI and DC. So he got 2 states and a bit.

He didn't get South Dakota.

McGovern volunteered for extra missions over his 30. No doubt he was a great guy. Just clueless.
 
Hanoi Jane was a bitch.

I cast my first legal vote for Nixon.

Despite being of prime draft age.
 
What was terrible about the Nixon administration? Imagine a couple of reporters creating a ficticious "informant" within any other administration and getting away with concealing the identity for 30 years until the alleged informant died and couldn't answer questions.. Karl Marx Bernstein was the son of card carrying communists and was raised with a hatred for Nixon who was a federal prosecutor working on communist infiltration. LBJ set the bar for spying and crooked black bag operations. Barry Goldwater's plane was bugged. All of a sudden the media was shocked that the Nixon administration was engaging in dirty tricks and they forgot about the fake Gulf of Tonkin incident that started VietNam.
 
What was terrible about the Nixon administration? Imagine a couple of reporters creating a ficticious "informant" within any other administration and getting away with concealing the identity for 30 years until the alleged informant died and couldn't answer questions.. Karl Marx Bernstein was the son of card carrying communists and was raised with a hatred for Nixon who was a federal prosecutor working on communist infiltration. LBJ set the bar for spying and crooked black bag operations. Barry Goldwater's plane was bugged. All of a sudden the media was shocked that the Nixon administration was engaging in dirty tricks and they forgot about the fake Gulf of Tonkin incident that started VietNam.

But Woodward was a Republican. Sort of evens things out, doesn't it?
 
Hanoi Jane was a bitch.

I cast my first legal vote for Nixon.

Despite being of prime draft age.

Who cares what you think? You thought he won SD, but were to lazy to check. I remembered correctly, but checked anyway. I proudly voted for McGovern. After seeing who didn't, I still feel I made the right choice! :cool:
 
if he was such a terrible president??

Nixon wasn't a terrible president overall. He was an otherwise fine president who crossed the line into criminal abuse of power, and brought himself down: a classic tragedy.

Nixon was a liberal at a time when a liberal was called for and expected by the voters. His reputation as a conservative, which in an earlier time he actually earned, but abandoned in his governance, worked like a Tar Baby trap and McGovern fell for it, positioning himself to the left of Nixon even though Nixon had already moved way left, as far left as the people wanted on most issues. It was a classic example of stupid overreach.

Not that I think Nixon was beatable in 1972 no matter what McGovern did. He governed as a progressive, the economy was doing well, most of our troops were home from Vietnam, he had recognized China and improved relations with the Soviet Union, and most Americans had a sense that all was well. Why change things?

Nobody knew he was a dangerous paranoid. That came out later.
 
What was terrible about the Nixon administration? Imagine a couple of reporters creating a ficticious "informant" within any other administration and getting away with concealing the identity for 30 years until the alleged informant died and couldn't answer questions.. Karl Marx Bernstein was the son of card carrying communists and was raised with a hatred for Nixon who was a federal prosecutor working on communist infiltration. LBJ set the bar for spying and crooked black bag operations. Barry Goldwater's plane was bugged. All of a sudden the media was shocked that the Nixon administration was engaging in dirty tricks and they forgot about the fake Gulf of Tonkin incident that started VietNam.

But Woodward was a Republican. Sort of evens things out, doesn't it?

You think long haired lib Bob Woodward was a republican? Even if he was how the hell would it "even things" out? Who was "deep throat"? For all we know it was fiction. Nobody got to question the stories W&B were writing because there was no other opinion in the mainstream media at the time but liberal. Do you think the son of KKK members would get away with writing stuff allegedly from a secret informant inside the Clinton administration? JFK bugged MLK's phones. LBJ bugged Goldwater's plane. Nobody went after them because they were ...democrats. Democrat operatives bugged Speaker Gingrich's phone during the Clinton administration and sent the recording to a democrat senator who turned it over to the NY Times. The media laughed it off. Exposing wrong doing in the federal government is the responsibility of the media but when they take short cuts with fake or unvarified "informants" who are never revealed until they die and can't answer questions it crosses the line.
 
if he was such a terrible president??

McGovern won his own state - if only Gore had been able to do that in 2000

Actually, McGovern didn't win his home state. He won Massachusetts and DC, and that was it.

But to the point, I think the problem was that McGovern had thrown all in with the radical left, to where even Democrats couldn't support him.

One anomynous Senator had called the McGovern ticket "Acid, Amnesty and Abortion". It turned out to be Lawrence Eagleton, who was the initial pick for VP. Then they found out the guy was on electro-shock therapy and thorazine, which was not the guy you wanted one heartbeat away.

McGovern's only real issue was Vietnam, and Nixon trumped him by cobbling out a reasonable peace accord on the issue.
 
Nixon was a political and foreign policy genius who was corrupt to the core. The Southern Strategy of 1968 began the shifting of the South white votes into the GOP column. He made momentous strides with the Soviet Union, Red China, and was not afraid to hold the North Viets' feet to the fire with his massive bombing campaigns in the North.

The Dems simply had no one who could hold a candle to him.

Jake the Fake ignores the fact that Nixon was able to play on the fact that McGovern embraced the most radical fringes of the liberal left on abortion, feminism, anti-war and social issues, so that it wasn't just the South that got behind Nixon, it was the whole country.

Nixon got a bigger percentage than Reagan did. Because he ran as a honest to God conservative.

Oh, another fact Jake the Fake conviently ignores about McGovern. He actually got LESS votes in the primaries. The rank and file Democratic Primary voters actually gave more votes to Hubert Humphrey. McGovern only won about 25% of the primary vote. And the Democratic Establishment and the hippies foisted him on the ballot, anyway.

And then they acted all stupified when a lot of those Democrats voted for Nixon.
 
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He wasn't a terrible president, he just had a terrible exit.

I think the problem was that he was unwilling to understand that the rules had changed. The Presidency he had was not the instutitution that Eisenhower had.

He made the mistake of defending his underlings, while Reagan, Clinton or Bush threw theirs to the wolves.

There's a lot of good in Nixon that both liberals and conservatives could admire. He was a pragmatist. Unfortunately, he had Watergate, and had it at a time when Americans no longer really trusted their government.

Today, both parties play on distrust of government when they don't have the presidency. (They love it when they actually have it.) And this might be the problem.

The government is us, really. If we don't trust in ourselves, we are always going to have a problem.
 
Nixon was a political and foreign policy genius who was corrupt to the core. The Southern Strategy of 1968 began the shifting of the South white votes into the GOP column. He made momentous strides with the Soviet Union, Red China, and was not afraid to hold the North Viets' feet to the fire with his massive bombing campaigns in the North. The Dems simply had no one who could hold a candle to him.

Jake the Fake ignores the fact that Nixon was able to play on the fact that McGovern embraced the most radical fringes of the liberal left on abortion, feminism, anti-war and social issues, so that it wasn't just the South that got behind Nixon, it was the whole country. Nixon got a bigger percentage than Reagan did. Because he ran as a honest to God conservative. Oh, another fact Jake the Fake conviently ignores about McGovern. He actually got LESS votes in the primaries. The rank and file Democratic Primary voters actually gave more votes to Hubert Humphrey. McGovern only won about 25% of the primary vote. And the Democratic Establishment and the hippies foisted him on the ballot, anyway. And then they acted all stupified when a lot of those Democrats voted for Nixon.

JoeBigot merely recaps some of what I said that, pretending that it is his own. Nixon was no conservative: price controls for heaven's sake, cozing up to the USSR and opening Red China. Yep, real conservative principles. JoeBigot simply tries to ignore the fact that Nixon used the Southern Strategy to break into the South in 1968http://www.rickandsusanna.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/800px-1968_electoral_map.png with Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Florida and then in 1972 with all of the South Redirect Notice

If JoeBigot thinks Nixon was solely a conservative, then JoeBigot can't interpret data competently.
 

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