We are reaching the silly season when we have two Republican senators claiming that there are signs that Barack Obama is becoming another Richard Nixon.
Lamar Alexander of Tennessee worries that Obama is forming an “enemies list” because of criticism of Fox News. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, who briefly planned to be Secretary of Commerce under Obama before changing his mind, stated that he was wondering if Alexander was correct in his judgment.
The fact that Obama is coming out swinging against his critics after many months of being overly gentlemanly and bipartisan in tone does not mean that he is pursuing the worse instincts of Richard Nixon. His response was long overdue.
What can be said is that IF Obama can be as successful in diplomacy as most historians perceive Nixon was, and IF Obama can accomplish the passage of major domestic reforms as Nixon presided over, then indeed it would not be a bad thing if Obama is compared to Nixon in these positive ways, rather than the negative ways that led to the Watergate scandal and the resignation of the 37 th President in 1974.