1976 Republican didn’t stand a chance after Watergate . It’s the first time we had a president leave office the way Nixon did. I worked on his campaign in 1972 it was a glorious thing the whole opening of China lotta things going on that was very positive. 1976 Harold Stassen could’ve won that one. A good friend who had an excellent job with the Nixon campaign and after 1976 he was ashamed to put it on his résumé. Hillary Clinton who would’ve put him in jail was thrown off the Watergate commission for lying. Flash forward to 2016 and he votes for her.
I respectfully disagree.
In 1972 President Nixon put together a coalition that included unionized blue collar workers. Many of the presidents and other leaders of those unions were veterans of WWII and detested McGovern. In particular he supported the Merchant Marine Act of 1970 which provided assistance to rebuilt the U.S. merchant marine and with that support came the support of a variety of labor unions connected with that industry. The east coast longshoremen’s union, the ILA, the Teamsters, and in particular the Seafarers’ International Union led by Paul Hall, strongly endorsed President Nixon’s re-election.
After President Nixon resigned, Gerald Ford, enjoyed the support of many of those unions. He addressed the annual convention of the Seafarers and the front page of the Log (the SIU monthly paper) carried his picture. At the time President Ford became president, the various maritime unions such as the SIU and those connected to ship building supported legislation that would require 30% of all oil imported into the US be carried in US built,crewed, and registered ships. It would have provided hundreds of thousands of jobs for workers in the maritime trades.
President Ford told Paul Hall that he (Ford) would sign the legislation if passed by Congress. With a tremedous amount of lobbying it passed. President Ford, killed the legislation with a pocket veto and on that day his fate was sealed. Combined with the recession, the oil embargo, and yes Nixon’s pardon President Ford was defeated by Carter.
With that pocket veto, Paul Hall and others felt betrayed.
If President Ford had kept his word he would have been re-elected. He certainly would have carried the state of New York as President Nixon did in 1972.