Geoff, what paranoia did you note in Clinton when he was president?

None, I can think of (beyond the "vast right wing conspiracy" jive).  Nixon had a weakness -- paranoia.  Clinton had other weaknesses that are well documented and more pruient.  Neither man were close friends with the truth!  But both men were also very effective presidents.  Both understood the job and did it fairly well.  Whether they understood what the Office should mean is debatable.  But its their weakness, contrasted against their strengths, that makes them interesting characters, hence my "Shakespearean" reference.

Neither man were close friends with the truth!

***

Yup. The difference 'tween them reminds me of a line from LAWRENCE OF ARABIA.

"The man who tells lies merely hides the truth. The man who tells half-lies has forgotten where he put it."

Nixon seems to me like more the former and Clinton the latter.

"I think Nixon on meds could've been a great president."

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I often wonder what Nixon would have been like had he come along 20 years later, AFTER Watergate had already happened. A large part of Nixon's problem was his conviction that there was nothing wrong with what he was doing, since it was simply how he understood politics to work. In his mind, EVERYONE sanctioned a little petty larceny to further the greater good.

In an environment like we have now, where public officials are automatically distrusted, and every move of every day is recorded and scrutinized by hundreds of journalists eager for any scent of blood in the water, howwould someone like Nixon behave?

In an environment like we have now, where public officials are automatically distrusted, and every move of every day is recorded and scrutinized by hundreds of journalists eager for any scent of blood in the water, howwould someone like Nixon behave?

I suspect he'd be the same Ray!  These guys never learn -- its not the crime its the cover-up!

Whoa.... the ole eyes are failing me. In an AP report I misread a hyphen for a comma. Yoiks! Sorry.