I have long believed that Richard Nixon was the most seriously under rated American president in my lifetime.

When John Lennon sang:

“No short-haired, yellow-bellied, son of Tricky Dicky
Is gonna mother hubbard soft soap me
With just a pocketful of hope
Money for dope
Money for rope”

I had no effective retort to either the strength of this invective or the power of Lennon’s proud assertion of the moral importance of having enough money to be able to participate in drug culture.

Now I do.

The tide has turned.

Historical website www.onthisday.com appears to present Richard Milhouse Nixon, the 37th president of the United States Of America, as the single most significant thespian ever to be born on the 9th of January, beating out Bob Denver, in second spot, and Nicola Peltz, whoever she is, in third. Perhaps one day this will come to be seen as Nixon’s greatest achievement.

No one can underestimate the historical significance of this.

Theatrically beating out his contemporary as a defining figure in American national life, the immortal Bob Denver, the man who, from 1959 to 1963, brought a new level of satire to television through the character Maynard G Krebs.

The day has now come. Every single one of his is enemies no longer has “Nixon to kick around any more ……..”

1. Detente with China and Russia?

2.Extricating America from the quagmire of Vietnam?

3.Elevating Spiro Agnew and Gerald Ford to the White House?

4. Acheiving peace with honor with a hostile media by resigning the presidency?

5.Annihilating the socialist McGovern in 1972 in a landslide that was actually a landslide?

6.Serving as vice president and president for longer that anyone else in U.S. history? (Unless Joe Biden is credited with extra years because he was so soporific that it seemed longer.)

All six of the above are a big fat NOTHING.:

Inconsequential rubbish compared to being a better entertainer than the man who was this funny on national television in that bygone era when the Brits were normally funnier than the Americans:

• Maynard G. Krebs : [Brainstorming ways to get money]  Hey, Dobe, what if I wrote to the president and asked him for a government loan? Dobie Gillis : The president in Washington? Maynard G. Krebs : Yeah! I’d say, Dear Mr. Truman… Dobie Gillis : Oh, Maynard, his name is Kennedy now. Maynard G. Krebs : Truman’s name is Kennedy?

We do not have to worry any more about all the horrible people who have badmouthed Richard Nixon for so long.

He made us laugh.

He made us cry.

A better actor than Bob Denver.

Now Dick and Pat will both be turning in their graves and raising their good-Republican-cloth-coat Qaker eyes contentedly, gazing upwards to heaven, and whispering with a quiete passion unparalleled since Mother Mary first gazed on the baby Jesus :

“Thank you Lord.

Finally.

We can rest in peace.”

Geoff Fox, 9th January, 2025, Australia, (now losing out to Canada and Greenland and the Panama Canal in the race to become the 51st state.)