i ain’t listened to no manics for some time

which is not a bad thing. but this morning i became confused. to me at least, the manic street preachers had secured a legacy of dreary, righteous, politically aware dad-rockers who plodded along on the legacy of another tragically mis-guided attention seeking moron. and now i discover that they feel thusly of Richard Nixon, 37th President of the United States and Greatest Crook of All Time.

In all the decisions I have made in my public life,
I have always tried to do what was best for the nation.
I have never been a quitter.

Now I cannot say I have ever been even slightly endeared to Nixon for even a moment. I have, perhaps, been known to equate him with a fallen angel I don’t even believe in, with the footnote that I have no knowledge of him every having had anywhere to fall from. But my research is insufficiently thorough, and the need to go the beach to pressing, to fully appraise his career here. What concerns me is that his unashamed efforts in retirement to promote his foreign policy achievements to a level where they overshadow his baseless corruption seem, in my experience, to have been successful.

It seems that the lasting legacy of the present Bush in White House will be one of equating self-interested corruption with incompetence. Looking back at Nixon whilst the world is run by a cabal so complacent they don’t even have to finish one little-brown-country-bashing war before they start the next one, the use of diplomacy to end a war admittedly seems the work of a man so wise and selflessly devoted to his country he should probably head a minor religion. But hold up! Is it not just possible that way back in that golden post-hippy era, a few popular and effective policies were actually necessary to keep you and your cronies in office for the next, ooh, 35 years? We are so used to the Campaign to Re-elect the President employing half of the US media, that it is easy to forget that back in Nixon’s day they were forced to resort to the tactics of common criminals. Let us spare a thought for tricky dicky, selfless and devoted founder of America Inc.