president richard nixon had just won reelection, winning 49 states in his race against democrat george mcgovern. inauguration day occurred on a saturday that year and chief justice warren burger administed the oath ofice. president nixon's second inauguration came months after the death of harry truman on december 26, 1972. two days after the inauguration on january 22, president nixon's predecessor in the white house, president lyndon johnson, died of a heart attack. pres. nixon: mr. vice president, mr. speaker, mr. chief justice, senator cook, mrs. eisenhower, and my fellow citizens of this great and good country we share together: when we met here 4 years ago, america was bleak in spirit, depressed by the prospect of seemingly endless war abroad and of destructive conflict at home. as we meet here today, we stand on the threshold of a new era of peace in the world. [applause] the central question before us is: how shall we use that peace? let us resolve that this era we are about to enter will not be what other postwar periods have so often been: a time of retreat and isolation that leads to

president richard nixon had just won reelection, winning 49 states in his race against democrat george mcgovernguration day occurred on a saturday that year and chief justice warren burger administed the oath ofice. president nixon's second inauguration came months after the death of

had been planning to run for president immediately after the democratic convention in 1972 when george mcgovern was nominated. we began to assess every aspect of the campaign itself. but, news media, the detailed history and the laws of each individual state where i would be contesting, my first presumption was i would be in between george waters -- george wallace on my right and left. i was disappointed because my plans had been made accordingly. when i went around the country to campaign, which i did assiduously, the different questions asked to me, concerning the middle east and china, panama, the free enterprise assessed -- a system in our country, the environment, education, welfare, made me, mandatorily, start getting my thoughts in order. by the time i was inaugurated i had a very clear picture of what i wanted to do as president. i have to say, not with too much ego, that we accomplished almost all of it. we had a very good and productive relationship with congress. a batting average at least equal to that of lyndon, for instance, statistically. we had a very difficult issues to face, n

began planning to run for president immediately after the democratic convention in 1972 when george mcgovern was nominated. we began to assess every aspect of the campaign itself. what news media we should contact. the detailed history and laws of each individual state where i would be contesting other candidates. my first presumption was i would be run in between george wallace on my right and kennedy on my left. i was disappointed when kennedy withdrew from the race. a lot of substitutes came in for him, nine or 10 in fact. when i went to campaign, which i did assiduously, the different westerns asked me concerning the middle east, china, panama, concerning the free enterprise system, concerning education and welfare and so forth made me start getting my thoughts in order. i would say that by the time i was inaugurated, i had a clear picture of what i wanted to do as president. i have to say not with too much ego that we accomplished all of them. we had a productive relationship with congress. a batting average equal to at least that of lyndon johnson. we had some difficult issues to face,

prior to that election are, 1972, richard nixon wiped out senator george mcgovern, the democratic nomineewas a progressive. paul: for sure. >> and nixon beat them handily. fast forward to 1976, and the democratic nominee turns out to be governor jimmy carter from georgia, a moderate. he's from the south. and he made an appeal9 to the common man. bring it all the way forward to the last election we just had, and the democrats once again, by and large, ran on a progressive ideology and platform, and they lost handily to donald trump who appealed to regular americans and the common man. and now the democrats are having a conversation among themselves over what kind of person should represent the democratic party, and i think the argument could be made it should be someone like jimmy carter. paul: wow, now that would be interesting -- [laughter] because i don't see anybody like that running in the current concern. >> well, that's their problem. paul: well, and just to dan's point, kim, about how much american politics have changed since the '70s, since '76 and the democrats, jimmy carter, a m

given the fact that i might be president bush immediately the convention in miami in 1972 when george mcgovern was i wanted to be his vice president and so did all the other southern governors, i might say. but we didn't make it. and and so a minute after peter vaughn wrote me a long dissertation saying some page letter, but and then we began to have secret meetings with just four or five of us in the governor's mansion in atlanta, my wife and just three or four people, including jordan, jody powell, peter bull and so forth, and out of those meetings, hamilton, jordan kept notes and he subsequently prepared a i would say a plot to take over the white house oh, that became the basis for our campaign in technique. and it was a extremely prescient it was far reaching. it was aggressive and ambitious. and it gave us but outside of thought was false sense of confidence, but but we prevailed because of it. and hamilton became my chief of staff and the leader of our group in the white house hamilton jordan. did i ask that? one of the points was they said, you have to read a book. and they said, you s