Not educated?

[LBJer]

Why did Nixon say he wasn't "educated" in his resignation speech ("I'm not educated, but I do read books...")?  He went to college (Whittier College) and law school (Duke University School of Law, where he was president of the Duke Bar Association).  I wonder what these institutions thought of his statement.  

[Del Tachi]

"Educated" to Nixon being the Yale/Harvard types, who he had cartoonish-level resentment for his entire life.

[Cassius]

I suspect that line was just a joke, although he often claimed, whilst at the White House, that he had he’d rather spend time with ordinary ‘stiffs’ in bars than with ‘intellectuals’, even though he was himself famously intellectual and bookish (probably more so than any other President in the modern era). As regards his relationship to the Ivy League though, he was actually offered a grant to attend Harvard, but couldn’t take it up due to his older brother Harold’s illness - he was needed back in Whittier to help his mother out at the family store, hence his decision to attend Whittier. I imagine that must have grated upon him to a degree.

[progressive85]

This is so odd because Nixon was very intelligent... I mean compared to today's politicians he was practically an academic!

[Meclazine for Israel]

A lot of people who go through University become very applied and leave their subject knowledge quickly.

That could then cause mild resentment towards people hiding behindvthe academic status of education.

[Schiff for Senate]

"Educated" to Nixon being the Yale/Harvard types, who he had cartoonish-level resentment for his entire life.

This.

He received a scholarship to Harvard but didn't go and attended Whittier College (the community college) instead so he could continue supporting his family. He resented elitist types like Kennedy who got everything on a silver platter, and he used the fact that he never went to an Ivy League college as a point of pride. This is not to say he wasn't intelligent - he skipped grades and, as I said, he received a scholarship to Harvard.

[OSR stands with Israel]

"Educated" to Nixon being the Yale/Harvard types, who he had cartoonish-level resentment for his entire life.

This.

He received a scholarship to Harvard but didn't go and attended Whittier College (the community college) instead so he could continue supporting his family. He resented elitist types like Kennedy who got everything on a silver platter, and he used the fact that he never went to an Ivy League college as a point of pride. This is not to say he wasn't intelligent - he skipped grades and, as I said, he received a scholarship to Harvard.

Nixon probably in many ways was the least Elitist Republican President in the modern era and while Reagan and HW are my favorite presidents in that period, they were definitely were more elitist than Nixon 

[Schiff for Senate]

"Educated" to Nixon being the Yale/Harvard types, who he had cartoonish-level resentment for his entire life.

This.

He received a scholarship to Harvard but didn't go and attended Whittier College (the community college) instead so he could continue supporting his family. He resented elitist types like Kennedy who got everything on a silver platter, and he used the fact that he never went to an Ivy League college as a point of pride. This is not to say he wasn't intelligent - he skipped grades and, as I said, he received a scholarship to Harvard.

Nixon probably in many ways was the least Elitist Republican President in the modern era and while Reagan and HW are my favorite presidents in that period, they were definitely were more elitist than Nixon 

H.W. for sure (his family were literally coastal elitists), but Reagan didn't seem particularly elitist, either (though I guess he had the 'Hollywood liberal' stereotype applied to him since he was in Hollywood and was affiliated with the Democrats for a while).

[OSR stands with Israel]

"Educated" to Nixon being the Yale/Harvard types, who he had cartoonish-level resentment for his entire life.

This.

He received a scholarship to Harvard but didn't go and attended Whittier College (the community college) instead so he could continue supporting his family. He resented elitist types like Kennedy who got everything on a silver platter, and he used the fact that he never went to an Ivy League college as a point of pride. This is not to say he wasn't intelligent - he skipped grades and, as I said, he received a scholarship to Harvard.

Nixon probably in many ways was the least Elitist Republican President in the modern era and while Reagan and HW are my favorite presidents in that period, they were definitely were more elitist than Nixon  

H.W. for sure (his family were literally coastal elitists), but Reagan didn't seem particularly elitist, either (though I guess he had the 'Hollywood liberal' stereotype applied to him since he was in Hollywood and was affiliated with the Democrats for a while).

I wouldn't say Reagan was really elite but he definitely was more friendly with the media and many cultural institutions than Nixon was. Of course the Media covered Nixon very negatively and Reagan pretty positively so that probably had much to do with it, and Reagan's Hollywood background probably made cultural institutions like Reagan more too.


Reagan's base was also probably more UMC as well though thats a different story