As a survivor (barely; I got tear gassed at a civil rights demonstration in 1969 and drafted in 1970) of the Nixon era, I was delighted to learn from Joe Duffy of the MSU College Democrats that “many of (President Barack) Obama’s policies are fundamentally no different than those of past Republican administrations” (Obama’s policies not so different from former Republican leaders SN 3/31). It was particularly comforting to learn that the basic principles of the recent health care bill are similar to those advocated by Richard Nixon, just as other Obama policies are similar to those of former President George W. Bush.

I never thought to compare presidents Obama and Nixon before reading Mr. Duffy’s letter. Upon reflection, a number of similarities do appear: double standards for high officials (neither Nixon nor Treasury Secretary Geitner paid their full income tax); “inoperative” promises (“I am not a crook”/”I will close Guantanamo within a year”); strategic arms agreements with Russia (Nixon passed his in a Democratic senate; it remains to be seen whether Obama can do the same); plentiful rhetoric about protecting the environment accompanied by plentiful off-shore drilling; “Spewing Spiro” Agnew and “F—-ing Joe” Biden as vice presidential comic relief; sky-high inherited unemployment and deficits; unending inherited wars; public presidential denunciations of the U.S. Supreme Court; angry crowds in the streets, etc.