Sharing My Story

Richard Nixon seemed to be a political has been
after his unsuccessful run for governor of California
in 1962. “You won’t have Nixon to kick around”
anymore was not the most graceful exit line.
As a young person I had rather ambivalent feelings
about Nixon. I felt that he was a very sincere
(in hindsight sincere sounding) politician who
wanted to do good for his country. On the other
hand he came across as the ultimate
middle-of-the-runner with out the passionate
conservsative convictions of Barry Goldwater
or the unabashed liberal Republicanism of
Nelson Rockefeller.

In 1968 Lyndon Johnson dropped out of the race
because things weren’t going well in Vietnam.
One of my good friends who was a Johnson
supporter felt that Johnson should have run
and could have won a second term. This was
an opinion I didn’t hear often. Humbert Humphrey,
the “Happy Warrior” received the Democratic
nomination. Nixon staged an amazing political
comeback and won the GOP nomination.

Even with two years of college behind me
I was still had strong conservative convictions
and was lukewarm about Nixon. I thought
he would be better that Humphrey who as
I viewed as a recycled 1960s New Dealer.
Humphrey would probably just continue
Johnson’s failing domestic and foreign policies.