Tag: Richard Nixon

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6 SUGGESTIONS FOR THE NEXT PRESIDENT

Once you’ve turned 80, you realize how many presidents you’ve known (or endured) in your lifetime. There are times when I think the country might do better without a  president, because we’ve lasted through so many of their poor decisions and mistakes.  Thankfully, they’ve done a few things right, which is probably one reason we’re still standing.  Not sure if I’ll be around for the 2024 election,  so just in case I’m not, I have a few suggestions for the next President of the United States of America.

6 suggestions for next president: Don't throw ketchup on the wall
6 SUGGESTIONS FOR THE NEXT PRESIDENT: #6 Don’t throw plates against the wall. Someone will have to clean up the ketchup.

#1.  Don’t ride in an open convertible during a parade.  Presidents used to do that all the time.  I remember the thrill of looking into Dwight Eisenhower’s beautiful blue eyes on one of his visits to Chicago. However, it didn’t work out well for John F. Kennedy in Dallas. .

#2.  Bury the tapes.  If you’re going to do something so foolish as to break into the opposing party’s election headquarters, for heaven’s sake, hide the evidence. Nixon  thought he was preserving an important part of history by saving all of his conversations regarding Watergate.  But the tapes came back to bite him.  If the next president tries such a break-in, it will be much more complicated.  He’ would have to erase all the text messages, e mails, and records of cell phone calls.  Better yet, he should  conduct any  communication regarding such an activity  one-on-one, inside a big closet.  But make sure it’s debugged.

#3. If you’re feeling sick, don’t attend a state dinner with the Japanese Prime Minister.  You’re liable to vomit in his lap, and it will make international headlines.  George W. Bush later claimed it was just  a simple case of the flu.  Unfortunately, it was right around election time, and many people thought that  episode contributed to his defeat.

#4 . Don’t smoke cigars, and if you do, keep them out of the oval office.  Especially  while conducting a tryst with an intern.  And if things get out of hand, make sure you have a change of clothes available.  Unlike Bill Clinton,  don’t let her leave the room  with the evidence .  And once you have the blue dress, cut it up in little bitty pieces and flush it down the toilet.

#5. Speaking of toilets:  Don’t use the toilet while talking to reporters.  LBJ was known for sitting on the pot while conducting interviews.  He got away with such crude behavior for awhile, but in the end, he realized he couldn’t get re elected.

#6. Unlike Trump,  don’t throw plates against the wall when you get mad.  Somebody will have to clean up the ketchup, and eventually, they’re going to testify before some congressional committee about your poor anger management skills.  There are lots of apps now that help with that.  Subscribe to something like CALM, meditate once a day, and do some deep breathing exercise before meeting with your attorney general after the election  .

I don’t know about you, but I’m really hoping the next president won’t be an octogenarian like myself.   We need a younger candidate who has demonstrated some common sense. But why would any sensible person want to run for president?

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WHAT’LL WE DO NOW?

The 2020 Election is pretty well over. Yes, it’s being contested, but it doesn’t look like that effort is going anywhere. According to various polls, at least half of Americans think there was voter fraud, but there’s no proof. That may stir up a little flurry in the media, but the pre-election frenzy has fizzled out. As Richard Nixon said in 1962, after losing the California governor’s race, “you won’t have Nixon to kick around anymore.” Trump could say the same thing. What’s going to happen to people like Rachael Maddow, Sean Hannity, Don Lemon, and Tucker Carlson? What will they rant and rave about, and what’ll we do now?

What'll We Do Now that Trump has lost? Like Nixon, the media won't have him to kick around anymore.
When Nixon lost in 1962, he said “you won’t have Nixon to kick around anymore.” Trump could say the same. What’ll we do Now?

Print media will have the same problem. Have you read the newspapers the past few days? If it weren’t for the coronavirus epidemic, I don’t know what they would have to report. They’re filling their pages with more and more “soft news” on topics like disease, domestic abuse, and jail overcrowding.. Honestly, I don’t know why we still take two newspapers. Guess it’s just force of habit. None of our adult children have newspaper subscriptions, and I don’t think they’re going to start buying newspapers now.

Cable news, especially, will suffer. CNN, MSNBC have provided fodder for the liberals . while conservative Fox News scores highest in prime time viewing. . Network news is federally regulated, and makes it’s money through advertising. Higher ratings mean they can charge more to advertise. Unfortunately for them, Cable news isn’t heavily regulated, so they can up their ratings and attract more advertisers because of all their outlandish political diatribes against one party or the other.

This past week, we’ve done a lot more channel surfing. We’ll watch anything but cable news. The other night, we watched a fascinating documentary “Mountain Men.” Since both of us come from farm backgrounds, it probably appealed to us more than the average city slicker.

Actually, it’s been rather relaxing. You don’t have to endure irritating social media posts about politics. Or avoid people with opposing political views. The excitement is over. But, what’ll we do now?