Was There A More Polarizing President Than Richard Nixon?

Yet he won the biggest popular vote and Electoral College landslide in the history of the republic... He began his career by falsely claiming his congressional opponent, Helen Gahagan Douglas was a "red"...He was almost thrown off Eisenhower's presidential ticket in 1952 because he was accused of running as slush fund with money from his corporate California backeres...
His antics were such that John Kennedy said he was "sick"... He was so unglued that after losing his California gubernatorial race in 1962 he uttered "you won't have Dick Nixon to kick around anymore."

Liberals hated Nixon for just breathing...

So with all these things going against him what did he have going for him?


He had a thick skin, an indomitable will to win, and a love of the fight...

Biggest landslide in the history of the republic and I was a kid but my relatives couldn't say his name without spitting...

But a good point...

Hard to top the Civil War.

#1 most hated President by % of citizens...

I wonder who historians would say is more polarizing...

And to be fair , Bill Clinton should be thrown into the mix...

But what makes Nixon sui generis is he won the "mother of all landslides" despite being being a polarizing figure...

They each won the presidency twice.

But none as spetacularly as Nixon...

I'm in awe...

61% of the vote...49 states...

Even Goldwater carried five states and Mondale got 41% of the vote...

I have know idea what anyone saw in Nixon. I think I was born Anti-Nixon.

Btw, Nixon completely ruined my 9th Birthday (I was born November 7, 1963)

He wasn't handsome...He wasn't charismatic...He didn't lead America during good times...


But he kicked ass in 72...

wait we can't blame Bush, it's the cabal and the media. oh heck, what a mess

Haven't seen you here in ages. :hi:

George Walker Bush creating the EPA.

But he went out of his way to get in fights with liberals while claiming he was persecuted by them; especially the intellectual ones...

Nixon grudgingly signed the bill. About the only thing good I can say about Nixon is that he knew how to move to the middle to get things done.

He saw the problem (rivers catching fire, Lake Erie so polluted that is was called "Dead," etc.) and knew the country needed an EPA, so he signed the Bill instead of looking for some bogus RW excuse like the current POS "president" does.

All this crap about Nixon creating the EPA or anything else that seems like a program that only a Liberal politician would create, were NOT Nixon's programs, The Democratic Congress did those things. Anyone who tries to tell you different is either a History Revisionist or someone the H-R has successfully duped into believing their lies.

Nixon did nothing good for Democratic causes unless he was forced to do them by political circumstance.:grr:

People liked Nixon's politics and they liked the pro-business and socially reactionary stance during a time of unsettling change, but they didn't really like HIM. People LOVED St. Ronnie, and those of us who saw the darkness descend hated his smiling "there you go again" guts.

Junior's definitely up there. So is Kennedy; the right considered him as illegitimate (which he was) as they did Clinton (who wasn't).

Of course, Lincoln DEFINITELY takes the cake

OTOH...All Repugs since him have made many of us angry. Reagan after Carter (whom many Dems were angry with for not standing up to right wing and pulling stunts like not having US Participate in Olympics and problems getting his cabinet together and his programs through in the first 100 Days) didn't seem so bad...until his SECOND TERM...but by then it was too late for us Dems.. The RW was starting it's Bulldozers and you can see what they did to Dems after Reagan.

And Crucified Helen Gahagan Douglas:


In the 1940s, Gahagan Douglas entered politics. She was elected to the United States House of Representatives from California's 14th Congressional district as a liberal Democrat in 1944, and served three full terms.

In 1950, Gahagan Douglas ran for the United States Senate against Republican Congressman Richard Nixon, in a race that her supporters considered a prototypical smear campaign. Alluding to her alleged Communist (or "Red") sympathies, Nixon suggested that she was a "fellow traveller", citing as evidence her supposed "Communist-leaning" votes in Congress — but neglected to mention that her voting record wasn't substantially different from his own. He referred to her as "the Pink Lady", and said that she was "pink right down to her underwear." His campaign manager, Murray Chotiner, even had flyers printed up on sheets of pink paper, to underline the point.

Gahagan Douglas, in return, bestowed upon Nixon one of the most enduring nicknames in American politics: "Tricky Dick". Nonetheless, Nixon won the election, with over 59 per cent of the vote, ending her career in electoral politics.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Gahagan_Douglas

He was far too silent....
:rofl: