Barack Obama sounds a bit like Richard Nixon.
No, he’s not deliberately cribbing from our 37th president. It’s hard to picture him telling his writers: “I need to fire up the liberal Democratic base – so go get me some Nixon language!”
But his rhetoric does include echoes of the 1968 Nixon campaign. The similarities are more natural than they seem at first. In some ways, Obama stands in the same spot that Nixon occupied forty years ago. His party has been out of the White House for two terms. He seeks to tie the other party to a protracted war and an unpopular incumbent. And at a time of intense polarization, he tries to tap a national yearning for unity.
So consider the following:
Obama says that what “we need in the next President is the ability to bring this country together; to find common ground so we can meet common challenges.” Nixon said: “The next President must unite America. He must calm its angers, ease its terrible frictions, and bring its people together once again in peace and mutual respect.” (9/19/68)
Obama tells audiences that they have come “together as Democrats, Republicans and Independents to stand up and say that we are one nation; we are one people; and our time for change has come.” Nixon said: “We’ll discover anew that this land is our land, all of us together, that its destiny is our destiny. We are one nation, together and inseparable, and if that proposition has been tested in these past years … the nation has shown that it can pass that test.” (6/27/68)
Obama speaks of “a new majority of not just Democrats, but Independents and Republicans who’ve lost faith in their Washington leaders but want to believe again – who desperately want something new.” Nixon had his own version: “The new majority is not a grouping of power blocs, but an alliance of ideas. Men and women of all backgrounds, of all ages, of all parties, are coming to the same conclusions… Their very diversity of background provides a basis for a new unity for America. (5/16/68)
Obama shuns unilateralism in foreign policy: “But when we use force in situations other than self-defense, we should make every effort to garner the clear support and participation of others…” Nixon also stressed joint efforts: “We as a nation must still do our share, but others must do their share, too. In the long run, peace can only be maintained if the responsibility for maintaining it is shared.” (3/7/68).
Obama worries about America’s image in the world: “The disappointment that so many around the world feel toward America right now is only a testament to the high expectations they hold for us. We must meet those expectations again, not because being respected is an end in itself, but because the security of America and the wider world demands it.” Nixon had a similar concern: “Nor do we command either the allegiance or the respect that were ours in the world at large only a few short years ago. No longer do our words receive the hearing they once enjoyed. Those who once followed the United States now observe the United States.” (3/28/68).
And Obama has qualified praise for the other party’s standard-bearer: “Now, John McCain is a good man, an American hero, and we honor his half century of service to this nation. But in this campaign, he has made the decision to embrace the failed policies George Bush’s Washington.” Nixon spoke the same way: “The man who is most likely to be nominated by the Democratic Party – Vice President Humphrey – is a man I respect. He is a man of honor and a man of his convictions. And he honestly believes in the old ways. I believe in a new way.” (6/27/68).
One could go on and on. Again, the point here is not that he is plagiarizing. Rather it’s simply to point out an irony. His Democratic supporters are reacting with deep emotion to things that Richard Nixon could have said.