CBS News: Election Night Coverage 1980- President Jimmy Carter's Concession Speech

Source: CBS News.

Source:The New Democrat


President Jimmy Carter stepping up to the plate and taking his loss to Ronald Reagan like a man. Definitely one of the earliest concession speeches at least at the presidential level. The sun might of still been out on the West Coast when President Carter gave his speech. I say that half-jokingly, but President Carter was told by his campaign leadership team over the previous weekend before the election when they got their last polling information that they were going to lose. So there was no real surprise here.
Source:CBS News

Max Power: President Gerald Ford- Pardons Richard Nixon: September 8, 1974

Source:Major King- President Gerald R. Ford: 38th President of the United States.

Source:The New Democrat

"Newly inaugurated Gerald Ford pardons his predecessor Richard Nixon in the wake of the Watergate scandal."

From Major King

As unpopular as the pardoning of Richard Nixon was for President Gerald Ford in 1974 and contributed to President Ford losing the election in 1976, it was the right thing for the President to do. Because of all the problems that he inherited as President dealing with the economy with high inflation, high interest rates, the recession of 1974-75, a rising deficit, the ending of the Vietnam War with the Ford Administration having to bring American personal back home from Vietnam safely. President Ford had a lot on his plate already and didn't have time to deal with the Nixon case and prosecution.

Richard Nixon Foundation: Nixon Tapes: 'A Nutcase Congressmen With House Minority Leader Gerald Ford'

Source:The New Democrat

President Richard Nixon and House Minority Leader Gerald Ford talking about House Majority Leader Hale Boggs in 1971 or 72. Leader Boggs was a bit out there and Boogs would probably be a good nickname for him because he was known on both sides of the isle as doing strange things. That probably came from drinking too much. And Dick Nixon being the great judge character and sanity himself as someone who had a real deficits as they related to both character and sanity could see that Hale Boggs was also a bit out there.

Hoover Institution: George P. Shultz: How to Get America Moving Again

Source:The New Democrat

George Shultz now a fellow at the Hoover Institution and of course former Secretary of State for President Reagan and I believe Secretary of Treasury or Commerce for President Nixon wrote an interesting article on how to get America moving again. I would call it a classically conservative Republican plan that moves away from the Tea Party of today and the libertarian-right of today. I don't agree with most of it. The only part I like was the part about lowering corporate taxes as long as you eliminate taxpayer funded subsidies. To get American business's more competitive with the rest of the world.

Lets take tax reform because Secretary Shultz mentioned it. Eliminate most if not all tax loopholes to lower rates across the board. Sounds like a good idea to me and if it was a choice between that and the regressive flat tax I would take the Shultz plan. But how about instead of taxing what people produce in America with their income, we tax what people take out of the country. I prefer a Progressive Consumption Tax that would tax people's basic necessities like food, water, housing, health care to use as examples at fairly low tax rates. And tax luxury items like second homes, expensive meals, ball games, luxury cars to use as examples at higher rates. Encourage people to make money and be productive and smart with their money.

As far as health care, I like the idea of health savings accounts even for low-income Americans that come with government assistance for them. I also like the idea of letting people on Medicaid opt out of Medicaid and choose a private health insurance plan, or open an health savings account. Because again it encourages people to take responsibility over their own lives, instead of government taking responsibility for them. Which makes things more cost-effective for everyone involved and encourages people to be smart consumers with their own lives.

Now how about some things that Secretary Shultz didn't mention. We need to literally rebuild this country and our national infrastructure system which would literally benefit every American especially low-income Americans who live in underdeveloped societies. And would open the way for companies to move into those communities and invest in them. But also would give access to companies to actually be able to get their products to those communities because the roads and other infrastructure would be there for that to happen. And as a result we would see new stores and business's opening up in these communities including local business's.

How about reforming public education in America with the Elementary and Secondary Education Act for anyone interested in combating poverty in this country.

Instead of financing schools based on where they are located, finance based on what they need to be successful.  The Federal Government can help with extra funding for low-income communities for public schools.

Instead of sending kids to school based on where they live, let their parents send them to best public school that is best for them. That is called Public School Choice.

Instead of paying teachers based on how long they've been teaching, pay them based on how well their kids are learning. That is called Merit Pay. Encourage highly qualified highly trained people to not only go into public education, but make it worth to them financially and encourage them to especially educate in low-income communities in low-performing schools.

As far as low-income, low-skilled adults. Not just encourage them to finish their education so they can get themselves a good job, but make it an requirement for them to receive any form of public assistance. So public assistance literally becomes a way for people to move up in life. Not live in poverty with a few extra bucks. And the Feds can help out with financial assistance for education and for childcare so people with kids have someone to watch them while their parents are in school.

As far as energy policy. We need a National Energy Independence Policy that gets us off of foreign oil and gas and onto to American oil, gas and other of our own natural resources. You do that by encouraging American companies to develop, research and produce those resources in this country. That is called an All Above Energy Strategy where we produce all of America's energy sources in this country. Oil, gas, nuclear, solar, wind, water everything that we produce and produce it here. And be able to export them instead of importing other countries energy.

I love the ideas of cutting high taxes and pointless regulations and red tape. But that alone doesn't return America to prosperity as much as the Tea Party may claim it does. I also love the idea of deficit and debt reduction, but that is not possible without a strong economy. The economy needs to be first and rebuild that and then everything else opens up and becomes possible. And we are doing these things we also shouldn't be doing anything to add to the deficit and debt and that even includes emergency spending. Which means government needs to pay as we go from now on at least until we are back to economic and fiscal health.

Patrick J. Buchanan: Richard Nixon Before Watergate

Source:The New Democrat

Pat Buchanan who is definitely a true loyalist to Richard Nixon, but who does make some good points about President Nixon pre-Watergate and what the man and his administration had accomplished. But that just makes Watergate and the Nixon White House's involvement including the President himself that more tragic and just backs that up even more. You have the great side of Richard Nixon as far as the visionary thinker and his intelligence that allowed for him to accomplish everything he did as President. But then you have the destructive side of the man that somewhat at least overshadows what he accomplished as President of the United States.

CBS News: Evening News: 'A Look Back at President Richard Nixon's Resignation'

Source:The New Democrat

I would feel sorry for Richard Nixon and his last few days and even weeks as President had he not of brought these things down by his own actions. With the plummers unit and the illegal break ins, his role in covering up Watergate, the taping system and without all of that President Nixon doesn't resign. Of course there were people on the Left who hated the man, but if it wasn't for President Nixon's own personal actions as President, he never gets impeached.

The National Interest: Aram Bakshian- Richard Nixon: Hated For Being Right

Source:The National Interest.

Source:The New Democrat

As brilliant and as great as a visionary as President Richard Nixon was in foreign policy, but in domestic policy as well the way he wanted to reform the relationship between the Federal Government and states to use as an example, his presidency failed because of how it ended. And it ended because of his actions going back as early as 1971 or even 1970 in creating a criminal operation inside of the White House. What his White House called an intelligence unit, but their job was to find intelligence against the Democratic opposition and even using illegal and unconstitutional means to find that intelligence.

Watergate probably never happens if the plumbers unit that President Nixon and his Chief of Staff Bob  Haldeman created in 1971 is never put together. Without the plumbers unit and their actions with the illegal break ins of Brookings and other places there would've never been enough reason for the House of Representatives to impeach President Nixon even with the taping system. And without the taping system the evidence to impeach President Nixon never materializes either. Because the tapes have the President on record as covering up the Watergate investigation by trying to get the FBI to drop the case.

Also had Richard Nixon not of won reelection in 1972 for selfish reasons and spent so much resources and energy on his own reelection and instead directed some of those resources and efforts to Congressional Republicans and seeing if he could get 20-30 Republicans elected to the House and 3-5 more Republicans elected to the Senate, again impeachment perhaps doesn't happen except for maybe the taping system. Because President Nixon might of had the votes at least in the Senate to avoid conviction on all charges. And instead the President gets elected with 55% of the vote instead of 59% and perhaps wins back one chamber of Congress to have the political support he needed.

There are a lot of mistakes that Dick Nixon made as President that led to his failures. And lot of them were made for selfish reasons like trying to get the most information possible on the other side even by using illegal means. And they were just simply stupid mistakes. And had he shown the same intelligence he did as far as governing the country as President as he showed running his own White House and political operation, he never gets impeached and probably goes down as a great President instead.
The Political Lion: President Richard Nixon's Legacy