As Is

 

This former president was once compared to a "used car salesman."

This current (as well as former) president has been compared to the president who I just told you was once compared to a used car salesman.

But it's an unfair comparison.

As you can see, he's really a NEW car salesman.

Either way, caveat emptor (let the buyer beware.)

Graphic Grandeur (Plumbers Edition)

The above Doonesbury strip from May 29, 1973 stirred up a bit of controversy in its day (one of many, many Doonesbury strips to stir up controversy in its day.) Was cartoonist Garry Trudeau assigning guilt to former Attorney-General John Mitchell before he got his day in court? Trudeau said no, that he was merely satirizing the tendency of people like then-campus radical/student deejay Mark Slackmeyer to take premature delight in what was, after all, a failure in the democratic form of government. Eventually, Mitchell did get his day in court and was indeed found guilty, thus rendering the satirical intent of the above strip meaningless. Read today, Mark (and, possibly inadvertently, Trudeau) looks prophetic.

Not that Garry Trudeau was ever a Mitchell, or, more to the point, Nixon supporter. That's President Richard Milhous Nixon, Mitchell's boss, I'm referring to, in case you're somewhat foggy about the politics of nearly a half-century ago and are wondering if any of this has something to do with that one woman who was on Sex in the City. The male Nixon never got his day in court simply because he was pardoned of any potential wrongdoing by succeeding President Gerald Ford one day short of a month after he resigned in disgrace in 1974.

But did he remain in disgrace? Nixon died in 1994, and when he did,  the flags were lowered on all government buildings, public employees were given the day off, the funeral was televised, and viewers at home got to see and hear a twenty-one gun salute while military jets flew overhead. The whole shebang. Nary a word was mentioned about the late President's fall from grace, certainly not by the then President, one Bill Clinton, who chose only to allude to the Watergate scandal that brought the man once referred to as Tricky Dick down by referring to it as "controversial". Just like the Doonesbury strip! Trudeau took note of all the redemption going on by revising his "Guilty, guilty, guilty" panel of 21 years earlier: 

Well, that was 24 years ago. There's someone else in the Oval Office these days, and the now white-haired Mark Slackmeyer has to figure out what to make of him. Here's a strip from about two years ago concerning a new presidential scandal that to this day hasn't yet played itself out:

How about that? A topical joke from 1973 yields timeless comedy. Unless you're doing time, in which case you may not find it so funny.

Recommended Reading

George McGovern died last week while I was either in the midst of writing a recent post on politics, or responding to comments on it. It was 40 years ago that McGovern first ran for president, bucking the odds and party establishment to secure the Democratic nomination, only to lose by a landslide in the general election. If you'd like a better understanding of that period of history, don't bother with The Making of the President: 1972 or anything "respectable" like that. Instead, put your trust in the good gonzo doctor:

"If the current polls are reliable... Nixon will be re-elected by a huge majority of Americans who feel he is not only more honest and more trustworthy than George McGovern, but also more likely to end the war in Vietnam. The polls also indicate that Nixon will get a comfortable majority of the Youth Vote. And that he might carry all fifty states... This may be the year when we finally come face to face with ourselves; finally just lay back and say it — that we are really just a nation of 220 million used car salesmen with all the money we need to buy guns, and no qualms at all about killing anybody else in the world who tries to make us uncomfortable. The tragedy of all this is that George McGovern, for all his mistakes... understands what a fantastic monument to all the best instincts of the human race this country might have been, if we could have kept it out of the hands of greedy little hustlers like Richard Nixon. McGovern made some stupid mistakes, but in context they seem almost frivolous compared to the things Richard Nixon does every day of his life, on purpose... Jesus! Where will it end? How low do you have to stoop in this country to be President?"

To be fair to Tricky Dick, the U. S. involvement in the Vietnam War did end on his watch--but only after he first expanded the war to Cambodia, essentially destroying that country in the process--KJ