Voter at the time of Nixon's impeachment (Watergate Scandal)???

Question

If you had been a voter at the time of Nixon's impeachment & resignation, how would the Watergate scandal have affected your perception of government power?

Answer 1

Okay, I was there....First off, Nixon was never impeached.  He resigned to spare the country the pain of impeachment.  Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton are the only Presidents to be impeached.

What I took away from the whole thing is this:  It is not so much that power corrupts, as that power attracts the corruptible.  I am always worried about a person who wants an office too much.  This is why little things like John McCain saying he would rather lose a campaign and win the war, rather than the other way around, impress me.

Answer 2

Well, my first Presidential vote was in 1976 and there was no way I was voting for the guy who pardoned Nixon (He resigned before he could be impeached, BTW).

I and the majority of Americans were looking for someone who was outside the Washington power base and we got that in Jimmy Carter. Ironically, his presidency was ineffective in many ways BECAUSE he was outside the Washington powerbase and refused to play ball with it. So, now, people deride him for giving them exactly what they wanted.  

Answer 3

It showed a powerful Republican president who cheated and lied ... but had the decency not to hold up the government by staying ... he resigned and America kept on going .

     Of course he was pardoned by Ford (another republican ).

My perception of the government at the time was that it was run by self serving political hacks . It hasn't changed at all.

   2 things Nixon did that I appreciated ... He ended the draft . And although he screwed the South Vietnamese... he got us out of a war we should never have been in .