A Post-Watergate President
New York, Oct. 4—It is everywhere said that with the withdrawal of Senator Edward Kennedy from the presidential race, the Watergate drama has come to a complete cycle, crushing, with the same juggernaut that crushed Richard Nixon, Nixon’s principal contender for the Presidency, Edward Kennedy. You cannot, we are told, remove the Republican Nixon for his failure, among other things, to come clean about his misbehavior—and then elect the Democrat Kennedy notwithstanding his failure, among other things, to come clean about his misbehavior. Richard Nixon’s public declaration to the effect that he deeply regrets his mistaken judgments greatly annoyed people who wanted him to appear in sackcloth and ashes, regretting the day that he was born. In fact, politicians use euphemisms, wherever possible. When Edward Kennedy renounced the race for the Presidency, he talked not about Chappaquiddick, but about his obligations to his family. I don’t doubt that he feels sincerely his obligations to his family. But then I don’t doubt, either, that Richard Nixon feels quite sincerely his regret at his mistaken judgments. After all, when you attempt to obstruct justice and fail to do so, among other things, you have been mistaken in your judgment.
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