Axis Kast wrote:Palin's not the first politician to bow out angrily over "shabby treatment." She's also not going to have to paddle very hard up the river of recent history to find a precedent that suggests she can move on from resignation to the Oval Office. See: Nixon, Richard, M.
Oh, puh-
leeze! You're making Tricky Dick roll over in his grave!
How many elected offices has Caribou Barbie held? I tell you - three: Wasilla city council, Wasilla mayor, and governor of Alaska. Who the fuck ever heard of Wasilla prior to her debut on the national stage? It's a suburb of Anchorage. Nothing
wrong with being on the city council or in the mayor's office, it's a way to get started in politics, but it's not very impressive on the resume, you know?
Richard Nixon, meanwhile, was first elected to Congress in 1946 - first to the House then to the Senate a few years later, which is definitely playing on the national stage. He was VP of the US during the Eisenhower years. So at the time of his famous "You won't have Dick Nixon to kick around anymore" statement in 1960 he already had had a solid career in
national politics and he'd finished every term he'd been elected to.
During his years as president he put in place the policies that lead to a withdrawal and finally an end to the Vietnam war, a very unpopular conflict in the US (I can't imagine anyone in Vietnam liked it either), opened relations with China which, until then, had been an enemy we didn't even talk to, and also started us talking much more with the Soviets which (in my opinion) had a largely positive effect and probably averted dangerous crises between the major nuclear powers from 1970 onwards. I don't think most of you here understand how US/China relations were back in the 1960's - they didn't exist. At all. The US and China could
not speak to each other directly, initial negotiations had to be routed through Romania and Pakistan for nearly a year before
any direct communication occurred, and keep in mind that at the time the US and China were fighting a war through their proxies in Vietnam. Let me assure you that in 1972 when Americans saw this:
Nixon Shakes hands with Chou En Lai it was just as amazing and startling as watching Armstrong step onto the Moon three years earlier. It's accomplishments like these that lead to him carrying 49 of the 50 states when re-elected in 1972 and 60% of the popular vote. Consider that while Republican "Saint" Ronald Reagan also won 49 states in 1984 he did not match Nixon's popular vote, getting only 58.8% of the popular vote. As amazing as it seems to many people today, Nixon was
enormously popular prior to Watergate.
It was on the basis of his presidential record of engaging with our enemies in positive ways that lead to his role as statesman later in life, as his expertise in that area was simply too valuable to waste even if, as pointed out, he couldn't be elected dog catcher in Bumfuck, Iowa.
On the domestic front, the first efforts at school desegregation occurred under his administration. He endorsed the Equal Right Amendment. He was the president that signed Title IX which is still the strongest protection against gender discrimination in US schools, and also the Equal Employment Opportunity Act. He signed Title X, which provided family planning and contraceptive services for low-income people (Yes, he did and yes, he was a Republican - that shows you just how much the religious assholes have hijacked that party). Nixon appointed many women to administrative positions despite opposition from within his own party, the Federal government at large, and even those working for him. Nixon established the EPA and OSHA and re-organized the US Postal System in its current form. Nixon established the Consumer Product Safety Commission. He authorized the Clean Air Act of 1970. In 1974, he introduced the
Comprehensive Health Insurance Act which, had it passed, would have mandated employers to purchase health insurance for their employees, and in addition provided a federal health plan, similar to Medicaid, that any American could join by paying on a sliding scale based on income. (Gee, does
that sound familiar? Like something the
current administration has suggested?)
So, when Nixon resigned in 1974 he had a solid record of actual accomplishments in not only national but international politics, many of which even his enemies acknowledged as positives for the country, and he didn't give a rambling, disjointed resignation speech full of bullshit. In fact, here's his official resignation letter which is admirable for both its brevity and complete lack of bullshit:
link to a picture that is way too big to post here
This site has a 15 minute video of Nixon's resignation speech as it was broadcast. Please compare to Caribou Barbie's. For those of you for whom the video might be problematic here is a transcript of that speech:
Richard M. Nixon wrote:
Good evening:
This is the 37th time I have spoken to you from this office, where so many decisions have been made that shaped the history of this Nation. Each time I have done so to discuss with you some matter that I believe affected the national interest.
In all the decisions I have made in my public life, I have always tried to do what was best for the Nation. Throughout the long and difficult period of Watergate, I have felt it was my duty to persevere, to make every possible effort to complete the term of office to which you elected me.
In the past few days, however, it has become evident to me that I no longer have a strong enough political base in the Congress to justify continuing that effort. As long as there was such a base, I felt strongly that it was necessary to see the constitutional process through to its conclusion, that to do otherwise would be unfaithful to the spirit of that deliberately difficult process and a dangerously destabilizing precedent for the future.
But with the disappearance of that base, I now believe that the constitutional purpose has been served, and there is no longer a need for the process to be prolonged.
I would have preferred to carry through to the finish, whatever the personal agony it would have involved, and my family unanimously urged me to do so. But the interests of the Nation must always come before any personal considerations.
From the discussions I have had with Congressional and other leaders, I have concluded that because of the Watergate matter, I might not have the support of the Congress that I would consider necessary to back the very difficult decisions and carry out the duties of this office in the way the interests of the Nation will require.
I have never been a quitter. To leave office before my term is completed is abhorrent to every instinct in my body. But as President, I must put the interests of America first. America needs a full-time President and a full-time Congress, particularly at this time with problems we face at home and abroad.
To continue to fight through the months ahead for my personal vindication would almost totally absorb the time and attention of both the President and the Congress in a period when our entire focus should be on the great issues of peace abroad and prosperity without inflation at home.
Therefore, I shall resign the Presidency effective at noon tomorrow. Vice President Ford will be sworn in as President at that hour in this office.
As I recall the high hopes for America with which we began this second term, I feel a great sadness that I will not be here in this office working on your behalf to achieve those hopes in the next 2 1/2 years. But in turning over direction of the Government to Vice President Ford, I know, as I told the Nation when I nominated him for that office 10 months ago, that the leadership of America will be in good hands.
In passing this office to the Vice President, I also do so with the profound sense of the weight of responsibility that will fall on his shoulders tomorrow and, therefore, of the understanding, the patience, the cooperation he will need from all Americans.
As he assumes that responsibility, he will deserve the help and the support of all of us. As we look to the future, the first essential is to begin healing the wounds of this Nation, to put the bitterness and divisions of the recent past behind us and to rediscover those shared ideals that lie at the heart of our strength and unity as a great and as a free people.
By taking this action, I hope that I will have hastened the start of that process of healing which is so desperately needed in America.
I regret deeply any injuries that may have been done in the course of the events that led to this decision. I would say only that if some of my judgments were wrong--and some were wrong—they were made in what I believed at the time to be the best interest of the Nation.
To those who have stood with me during these past difficult months—to my family, my friends, to many others who joined in supporting my cause because they believed it was right—I will be eternally grateful for your support.
And to those who have not felt able to give me your support, let me say I leave with no bitterness toward those who have opposed me, because all of us, in the final analysis, have been concerned with the good of the country, however our judgments might differ.
So, let us all now join together in affirming that common commitment and in helping our new President succeed for the benefit of all Americans.
I shall leave this office with regret at not completing my term, but with gratitude for the privilege of serving as your President for the past 5 1/2 years. These years have been a momentous time in the history of our Nation and the world. They have been a time of achievement in which we can all be proud, achievements that represent the shared efforts of the Administration, the Congress, and the people.
But the challenges ahead are equally great, 'and they, too, will require the support and the efforts of the Congress and the people working in cooperation with the new Administration.
We have ended America's longest war, but in the work of securing a lasting peace in the world, the goals ahead are even more far-reaching and more difficult. We must 'complete a structure of peace so that it will be said of this generation, our generation of Americans, by the people of all nations, not only that we ended one war but that we prevented future wars.
We have unlocked the doors that for a quarter of a century stood between the United States and the People's Republic of China.
We must now ensure that the one quarter of the world's people who live in the People's Republic of China will be and remain not our enemies, but our friends.
In the Middle East, 100 million people in the Arab countries, many of whom have considered us their enemy for nearly 20 years, now look on us as their friends. We must continue to build on that friendship so that peace can settle at last over the Middle East and so that the cradle of civilization will not become its grave.
Together with the Soviet Union, we have made the crucial breakthroughs that have begun the process of limiting nuclear arms. But we must set as our goal not just limiting but reducing and, finally, destroying these terrible weapons so that they cannot destroy civilization and so that 'the threat of nuclear war will no longer hang over the world and the people.
We have opened the new relation with the Soviet Union. We must continue to develop and expand that new relationship so that the two strongest nations of the world will live together in cooperation, rather than confrontation.
Around the world in Asia, in Africa, in Latin America, in the Middle East-there are millions of people who live in terrible poverty, even starvation. We must keep as our goal turning away from production for war and expanding production for peace so that people everywhere on this Earth can at last look forward in their children's time, if not in our own time, to having the necessities for a decent life.
Here in America, we are fortunate that most of our people have not only the blessings of liberty but also the means to live full and good and, by the world's standards, even abundant lives. We must press on, however, toward a goal, not only of more and better jobs but of full opportunity for every American and of what we are striving so hard right now to achieve, prosperity without inflation.
For more than a quarter of a century in public life, I have shared in the turbulent history of this era. I have fought for what I believed in. I have tried, to the best of my ability, to discharge those duties and meet those responsibilities that were entrusted to me.
Sometimes I have succeeded and sometimes I have failed, but always I have taken heart from what Theodore Roosevelt once said about the man in the arena, "whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again because there is not effort without error and shortcoming, but who does actually strive to do the deed, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumphs of high achievements and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly."
I pledge to you tonight that as long as I have a breath of life in my body, I shall continue in that spirit. I shall continue to work for the great causes to which I have been dedicated throughout my years as a Congressman, a Senator, Vice President, and President, the cause of peace, not just for America but among all nations-prosperity, justice, and opportunity for all of our people.
There is one cause above all to which I have been devoted and to which I shall always be devoted for as long as I live.
When I first took the oath of office as President 5 1/2 years ago, I made this sacred commitment: to "consecrate my office, my energies, and all the wisdom I can summon to the cause of peace among nations."
I have done my very best in all the days since to be true to that pledge. As a result of these efforts, I am confident that the world is a safer place today, not only for the people of America but for the people of all nations, and that all of our children have a better chance than before of living in peace rather than dying in war.
This, more than anything, is what I hoped to achieve when I sought the Presidency. This, more than anything, is what I hope will be my legacy to you, to our country, as I leave the Presidency.
To have served in this office is to have felt a very personal sense of kinship with each and every American. In leaving it, I do so with this prayer: May God's grace be with you in all the days ahead.
In sum: Nixon was heavy player on not just a state or national scale but an international one, a man of many real accomplishments who, basically, fucked up. In his resignation speech he was man enough to admit that it was the Watergate scandal driving his resignation. Palin, however, quit her first state-level office before her first term was out and puked up some rambling horseshit about why she quit. Rating them as comparable only shames the memory of Nixon, which is pretty damning statement considering that Nixon was never forgiven for Watergate, regardless of what good he accomplished otherwise. Nixon had some real substance on which to base a post-resignation career....Palin ain't got shit.
