[pXss8cyx]

I voted for Richard Nixon. Why, you ask? Just to be cantankerous? Just to be perverse?

Just because.

Because I know no one else is likely to vote for him.

Take away the Vietnam War, the secret war in Cambodia, the dirty tricks, the extra-legal, unconstitutional use of police powers, the financial shenanigans, the paranoia tinged with racial weirdness, and -- well -- all things considered, he was an okay fella.

As I understand it, Nixon was the last president before Clinton to propose legislation for national health care, which the Democratic-controlled Congress of the day then shot down.

My how things have changed. That was probably the last real chance the U.S. had at a single-payer health-care system.

What else. There was that lovely "Checkers Speech." They kept the dog. Awwwhhhh... I wuv doggies-woggies. Without Checkers we might never have heard of Tricky Dick.

There was the 1972 handshake with Mao in Beijing. How often do you get to see two megalomaniacs of that stature together in one place? Oh yeah, I forgot about this.

Presidents. "Some are gone, yet some remain..."

I let myself get excited about Clinton and I was disappointed. I let myself get really excited about Obama, in spite of myself. I am already having my doubts...

My friends tell me I am becoming a curmudgeon.

I tell them I am an optimist. I tell them I take the long view. I tell them I am a Buddhist.

I voted for Nixon.

Metta,
hb