Nixon was a very complex man, certainly our most "human" president. I see aspects of myself, good and bad, in him. I have a lot of admiration and hatred for him. I would have voted for McGovern in 1972 with and without hindsight, but it is not a vote against Nixon himself as much as it is a vote against Vietnam. The monster Richard Nixon became wasn’t made by Richard Nixon; it was made by the media who clearly had it in for him from the start. It became a cat and mouse game, with Nixon and the collective press each sinking to new lows to outdo the other.
Let’s remember, Nixon opened up China, signed SALT I, and fought for a public option healthcare program (which I would have opposed at the time, but now feel we need in post Obamacare America), among other great things. Several of his aides went on to do great things-Brian Lamb founded C-SPAN, for example, and Pat Buchanan has had an incredible career since Watergate as well.
He also (possibly) continued the war on purpose, took us off the Gold Standard, allowed busing to go on, and failed to properly cover-up several minor dirty tricks. And then, let us not forget that he also rounded up student protestors and locked them in RFK stadium in 1971, Chile, and his association with shady, washed up CIA operatives from the Kennedy era (Liddy, Hunt, etc).
Nixon was a horrible president on the whole, yet for some reason, I cannot bring myself to call him a horrible human being. Look into a mirror, and all of you, whether you like it or not, will see at least one aspect of Richard Nixon in yourself.
I do believe Nixon to be a bastard whose presidency was a great negative for the country, yet I as well have a hard time not rooting for him. Maybe it's just my inner-troll, or the fact that those on the left (should, at least) hate him so much, or some identification, I'm unsure.
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