Would those who remember please describe Nixon's funeral?

[Paragon]

Was there a similar hoopla (wire-to-wire TV coverage, week of mourning, day off work, etc.), cause I don't remember it.

Thanks.

[shraby]

1. It was so insignificant I

missed it. I just figured, good riddance of bad rubbish.

[Best_man23]

2. Not nearly as much hoopla as there was this week

Repugs and Nixon's family kept that funeral low key. Tricky Dick did not get to lie in the Capitol Rotunda or a service in the National Cathedral.

Also, the networks did not have wall-to-wall Nixon coverage.

[LTR]

3. I remember lots of coverage, but not as much as Reagan's

They kept it slightly lower key. Opted out of the state funeral.

Remember, this is when CNN was the only 24/7 news network. And it was before the whole O.J. Simpson trial and 9/11, both of which changed cable news forever.

I'm not surprised by the coverage, though I think it's a bit over the top.

[Paragon]

9. Because Nixon resigned, I assume?

Unless the Nixon family opted out to avoid having his legacy dredged up again, why didn't the Reagans?

Publicity whores? Election year?

[kskiska]

4. What was really sad was Pat Nixon's funeral

Dick was so broken up over it, which was surprising, since he treated her so badly, sometimes in public.

She got a bad rap from the media, sometimes being referred to as "Plastic Pat," seemingly devoid of personality, but she was a simple woman at heart, a former schoolteacher who just wanted to be a mother and housewife and sew slipcovers. Her early life was tough, having to raise several siblings after her mother died.

[Capn Sunshine]

6. The first time I EVER felt sympathy for Nixon

was after seeing him crying at Pat's funeral. He really loved her, and it showed. Sometimes , in our demonization of politicians ( well deserved in this case) we forget there's a vulnerable human being inside.

[bushwakker]

10. I remember first bro Donald Nixon breaking down

at Tricky Dickks's funeral. I felt very bad for the guy.

[July]

5. I only remember a little.

Nowhere near as much hoopla. Clinton spoke and did a pretty good job of putting lipstick on a pig. Bob Dole cried during his speech and said something about Nixon's being great or that he loved him -- it was a little strange.

[robbedvoter]

7. Mr Robbedvoter was FURIOUS with Clinton for making it a national holliday

That's all I remember. I'll remember of the present hoopla a week long stream of good jokes on AAR. Both times I stayed away from the SCLM.

[benddem]

8. Since Nixon resigned

It couldn't have been a State funeral. It was a very quiet thing.
But Truman and Eisenhower were buried without this much fanfare.

[bushwakker]

11. As usual the Big Dog was graceful and eloquent*

[I thought so.]

12. I don't remember any Nixon funeral.

I won't remember Reagan either. There are better things than TV.

[swinney]

13. Nixon funeral was honorable

President Clinton address was exceptional but just normal for him.

I will never forget these words: "We must always judge the Whole of a Man." Nixon family loved Clinton for those words.

[vetwife]

14. It was dignified and not a Military Hoopla Circus as this

This was a showy Hollywood ending to a showy Hollywood president.

[chookie]

15. Kind of opposite of this week's events

The Nixon funeral was going to be a little troublesome, because he had resigned in disgrace, and "Watergate" had become a synonym for corruption and wrong-doing in high office.

But what emerged in the midst of the acknowledgement of his controversial administration and the troubled time in which he led the country into, was an acknowledgement of the very significant accomplishments of his adminstration. The tragedy of the death of President Nixon was not his mortal passing, but coming to grips with his bifurcated existance -- so much talent and intelligence, insight and accomplishment, brought down by petty flaws of character.

The Nixon funeral was dignified and respectful, as befitting a dead chief executive. The solemn public rituals caused many to meditate over the vast tragedy of Nixon the Man, and in hindsight, reflect on the era of his adminstration in its historic context, which is quite dramatically mixed.

Thus, the Nixon funeral was quite different from Reagan's -- starting from an assumption of disgrace and failure, and working towards an appreciation of the man's historic accomplishments. There was none of the myth-making and even beatification we are seeing this week with President Reagan.

The acknowledgement of Nixon as a great man flawed is how he came to be laid to rest in the nation's memory. This honesty helped me make my peace with him. I still don't think that anyone really understands the man or his era, and a definitive history or biography has yet to be written, that faces up to the tragic contradictions of his life. I have yet to come to truly understand the genesis of his flaws of character, except that it seems to have been motivated by desire for political power, and selling himself to dark elements of the right wing.

I would happily come to some peace with Ronald Reagan, as well, -- which, by the way, does not mean any change in my very critical assessment of his adminstration -- and I think that I could had it not been for the blatant opportunism of the Bushistas, who attempt to shore up the politically falling star of their idiotic and venal George W by grafting him onto the Myth of Ronald Reagan. After all, for years now, they have attempted to surpass St Ronnie with Infallible George the Cowboy Crusader. That has failed -- so now they have cynically fallen back to Plan B -- to "show" that George W is "really" Ronnie. Ronald Reagan may have been the Teflon President -- in that he somehow *managed* to come out smelling like a rose no matter what he was actually doing; the very notion of "Teflon" is that everyone acknowledges you are up to stuff or have made mistakes but choose not to hold you fully accountable-- whereas George W *requires* a 24/7 jackbooted Praetorian/Republican Guard of flying monkeys to bully the American people into submitting that George W is INFALLIBLE. Therefore, they want us to be intimidated not to speak or even think against him. They have to enforce it, legislate it, prosecute it for their sorry assed little sneak George, whereas people *handed* this suspension of judgement to Ronnie.

My assessment after this week of tributes to Reagan -- it's not going to save George W. His star has fallen. He's going to have to go back to Plan C -- run against gay marriage and abortion, and HOPE Americans are frightened by some event in the next few months to once again "rally around the War President." Still, my assessment is that not even THIS will save him. The only thing that is going to retain the WH for this creep is using extra-legal means to steal the election, again -- and by methods far bolder than he/they employed in 2000....