We Have All Been Here Before

"The King Is Dead..." by Paul Conrad in Los Angeles Times, August 9, 1974

Very well: we have not all been here before; but if your mind's ear sang today's blog post title, yes, you were.

"'By the Dawn's Early Light'" by Eric Smith in Capital Gazette, Annapolis MD, Aug. 9, 1974

As we look forward to the end of one long national nightmare 68 days from now, Siricaback Saturday looks backward 46 years to the end of another. Facing certain impeachment in the House of Representatives and calls from leading Republican senators to resign, President Richard M. Nixon finally accepted the inevitable on August 8, 1974.

"Because I Have Lost the Support of the Crew..." by Bill Sanders in Milwaukee Journal, Aug. 9, 1974

By and large, the nation greeted Nixon's resignation with relief, and welcomed the new President, Gerald R. Ford, in spite of the fact that he remains the first and only person inaugurated President without having first run on a national ticket.

No caption, by Leonard Borozinski in Wisconsin State Journal (Madison), Aug. 9, 1974

Borozinski's cartoon, perhaps also punning on the new president's name, riffs on a television commercial for Hertz Rent-a-Car that was already a dated reference in 1974.

"Well, Let's Go At It" by Bill Sanders in Milwaukee Journal, Aug. 11, 1974

Ford had been House Minority Leader before Nixon named him to replace Vice President Spiro Agnew, but the career politician was not well known outside of Washington D.C. or Michigan. Still, he seemed to promise a calm, steady hand, and an end to Nixon's paranoia and the partisan rancor over the Watergate break-in and cover-up. Conservatives and liberals alike wished him well.

No caption, by Dick Locher in Chicago Tribune, Aug. 17, 1974

I can't tell you how tempting it is to redraw Dick Locher's cartoon with President-elect Joe Biden firing the flit. Of course, Locher was making reference to Nixon's tape recording system — bugs— in the Oval Office. This time around, we have at least been spared whatever unitelligibles and deleted expletives might have been revealed on any Trump tapes. But you never know for sure. Keeping Up with the Kushners could be coming up on E! any day now.

No caption, by Pat Oliphant in Denver Post, Aug. 7, 1974

A day before Nixon's resignation, Pat Oliphant drew Vice President Ford opening a White House closet to find the cobweb-ridden sign that had supposedly been carried by 13-year-old Vicki Lynne Cole at a 1968 Nixon for President rally in Deshler, Ohio. (Parts of the story may be apocryphal.) A friend of Nixon's had told his speechwriters about having seen the sign, and the phrase became a slogan for the campaign. It also figured prominently in Nixon's Election Night victory speech.

"I'll Try, Honey..." by Hugh Haynie in Louisville Courier-Journal, August, 1974

Somewhere, that teenager, now hitting retirement age, is still waiting for a president who can bring us together.