Nixon’s Pardon, A National Delusion, & Obama’s Election  ~a
history of illegitimacy  Recently I heard an insightful
political commentator noting how the illegitimate pardon of
Richard Nixon set a tone in Washington that has remained until
this day, and has become a kind of underlying mind-set through
which certain controversial issues are now viewed.  In a time
when the country was outraged and enshrouded in the negativity
of  the fetid stench of a President acting like a petty
dictator, the nation’s strongly aroused sense of a sacred trust
being betrayed and egregiously violated was met not by a
catharsis of justice but by the deflating announcement that
President Ford, appointed by Nixon as his Vice-President, had
“pardoned” ex-President Nixon for any actions related to the
Watergate cover-up.  The Power of Expediency     The effect of
that action had a chilling effect on the natural desire to see
justice meted out, and replaced it with an unsatisfying
philosophy that justice must take a backseat to what’s