Grade: F
I'm aware of Nixon's achievements in normalizing US relations with China. I'm also aware that he was President when the Environmental Protection Agency was created, and that domestically he was much more moderate than his Republican successors. I even find some admirable traits in Mr. Nixon, and give him credit for meeting with the protesters at the Lincoln Memorial. And once the entire light comes out on President #39 on my list, it is quite possible that his sorry Administration will deserve this spot on the list.
Had Richard Nixon not operated with such contempt of the checks and balances of our government, it is likely he could find himself in the top half of this list. But act with contempt he did, and therefore he gets the "real" loser spot.
As an incident, the Watergate break-in was a fairly minor scandal. Although breaking into the opposing political party's headquarters wasn't exactly a honorable thing, it wasn't something that should have brought down a presidency. Had Nixon admitted his sordid involvement in the crap, apologized the day after he beat McGovern, and promised to handle his administration better, it would have disappeared.
Instead, he and his associates decided to cover it up, resulting in one of our nations sorriest chapters. The idea that the President is above the law is a disturbing belief, and one that smacks of the obsolete notion of Divine Right. Nixon wasn't the first President to overstep this boundary, but he was certainly the one that did it with the least remorse and without just cause.
On top of the crimes his administration committed during the early 70s, many of his junior acolytes would later be involved in the Reagan and Bush administrations, learning how to continue violating the Constitution without getting impeached, instead of learning the real lessons that were evident. Therefore, Nixon gets penalized more as the trend-setter, rather than the trend follower of Bush 41 (and to a somewhat lesser extent Reagan).
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