Any Possibility That Nixon Never Resigns?

Nixon's impeachment/resignation was nigh-inevitable months before he actually resigned. Most politicians would have resigned then, to avoid a further loss of reputation and killing their party's chances. However, Nixon was a fighter, if nothing else, causing him to behave pretty irrationally for a while on the resignation. Was there any possibility that, under all that pressure, Nixon's killer political instincts finally abandon him, and he decides to stick it out to the bitter end, consequences be dammed?
 
If he hadn't resigned, he would have been impeached and probably removed from office, and the Democratic Congressional Wave in the November 1974 midterm elections would have been even bigger, so even if Nixon had somehow hung on in office, he would have been reduced to a rubber stamp.
 

shiftygiant

Gone Fishin'
Nixon's impeachment/resignation was nigh-inevitable months before he actually resigned. Most politicians would have resigned then, to avoid a further loss of reputation and killing their party's chances. However, Nixon was a fighter, if nothing else, causing him to behave pretty irrationally for a while on the resignation. Was there any possibility that, under all that pressure, Nixon's killer political instincts finally abandon him, and he decides to stick it out to the bitter end, consequences be dammed?

Impeached and Ford becomes President. The Stress of what happens kills him and Ford becomes President. A more depressing alternative is that Nixon straight up kills himself in office, thus never having resigned or been impeached.
 
Impeached and Ford becomes President. The Stress of what happens kills him and Ford becomes President. A more depressing alternative is that Nixon straight up kills himself in office, thus never having resigned or been impeached.

The first two are basically mutually exclusive. I think that he'll have been impeached by early '75 at the latest. Do you think that, after Nixon willfully condemned Ford and his party to a massive defeat in 1976, and after an actual impeachment, Ford would even the the will or political capital to pardon him?
 

shiftygiant

Gone Fishin'
The first two are basically mutually exclusive. I think that he'll have been impeached by early '75 at the latest. Do you think that, after Nixon willfully condemned Ford and his party to a massive defeat in 1976, and after an actual impeachment, Ford would even the the will or political capital to pardon him?

Well one of the choices means Ford isn't tainted by an impeachment and lengthy court trial.

If he's impeached, I doubt Ford will Pardon him due to how toxic it is. Ford may commute his sentence (Like President Gavin in FLG), although given the reasons behind Ford's pardon, pardoning Nixon isn't out the question.

And I don't think so much that IoTL Nixon condemned Ford to a 'massive defeat' (It was closer than you think in '76), but if Nixon is impeached, yeah, he's committed Ford to a massive defeat. Not impossible to pull out the nosedive, however Carter would likely beat him by a wider margin. Heck, Ford's prospects might be so bad we see Reagan win nomination in '76.
 
Well one of the choices means Ford isn't tainted by an impeachment and lengthy court trial.

If he's impeached, I doubt Ford will Pardon him due to how toxic it is. Ford may commute his sentence (Like President Gavin in FLG), although given the reasons behind Ford's pardon, pardoning Nixon isn't out the question.

And I don't think so much that IoTL Nixon condemned Ford to a 'massive defeat' (It was closer than you think in '76), but if Nixon is impeached, yeah, he's committed Ford to a massive defeat. Not impossible to pull out the nosedive, however Carter would likely beat him by a wider margin. Heck, Ford's prospects might be so bad we see Reagan win nomination in '76.

I only meant "massive defeat" if there was an impeachment. What is FLG?
 

shiftygiant

Gone Fishin'
I only meant "massive defeat" if there was an impeachment. What is FLG?

Fair enough. I still think Ford can recover depending on how he handles things.

Fear and Loathing and Gumbo on the Campaign Trail of '72 (I admit I should have been clearer with my acronyms), in which President James M. Gavin (long story) commutes Richard Nixon's sentence when it becomes clear Prison will likely kill him, and is just cruel on the guy.
 
As Watergate unfolded, Nixon's behavior became very, very volatile and it was hard to tell what he was going to do. It makes for a lot of alternate history possibilities which no one has taken up. There were times he was drunk, where his compatriots thought he could be suicidal, where he was so incapacitated that the executive branch was being run by Hagg, Kissinger, etc, where Kissinger intervened in case Nixon tried to give an order when drunk which would have lead to a nuclear war or something, etc. So Nixon could have gone down fighting.
 

shiftygiant

Gone Fishin'
I'm curious if we've ever had a 'Nixon kills himself during Watergate' TL yet.

It's a fascinating concept, and I wonder if anyone has done anything with it.
 
I was a senior in college when the Watergate investigation was really heating up, so I recall it reasonably well. The pressure placed on Nixon to resign mounted by the day in 1974. He denied the possibility of conviction in the Senate (as I recall, at least privately he was resigned to the House voting out one or more articles of impeachment and taking his chances that there would never be a 2/3 vote to convict in the Senate). That changed when senators Hugh Scott (R, PA) and Barry Goldwater (R, AZ) paid him a visit and told him flatly that he didn't have the votes in the Senate to avoid conviction. Then it became a choice of resignation on more or less his own terms and going down in flames. Thus, the announcement and subsequent resignation.

While the subject of the '76 election is out there: that one was bitterly close all the way, and it would have taken only some very minor twitches to invert the result. And when I say that, I mean the networks didn't make a call until about 5:30 AM on Wednesday morning following the election (on ABC, Harry Reasoner looked like he'd been dragged through a knothole, and Barbara Walters looked like she'd aged 15 years during the course of the evening). For a benchmark, consider that the networks called the election of 1980 at about 8:30 PM eastern standard time on the evening of the day of the election.
 
If the 1974 mid terms are a bigger Democratic landslide, then Bill Clinton could be elected President. If he still elected President. He has a better understanding of Congress and can get a health program through.
 
I think the thought was he gets a House Seat and that makes Slick Willie a better President

Yes I think he could get reelected in the Democratic year of 1976. He would then figure out that with a Democrat president, reelection in his marginal district will be harder. sSo he runs for governor in 1978.
 
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