As a political science major in 1969, I was intrigued by Joe McGinniss’ The Selling of the President 1968 which chronicled how marketers packaged and sold the “new Nixon” to the American public. Their task was not an easy one.  A bitter, angry Richard Nixon had temporarily departed the political scene in 1962 following his defeat to Edmund G. Brown for governor of California with the admonition, “You won’t have Richard Nixon to kick around any more.”

Perhaps, the best description of the “new Nixon” of 1968 is contained in a December 1967 editorial in the Eugene, Oregon Register-Guard following a speech at the University of Oregon.

(Attendees) said they found him more relaxed, more given to easy humor, less testy than the drawn, tired figure who debated Jack Kennedy or the angry politician who conceded his California defeat with such ill grace. They noted he pitched his talk to youth, urging the predominantly college audience to get involved in causes bigger than themselves.

What many of us did not understand at the time was the extent to which the candidate himself was the unintentional target of the media blitz designed to reshape his image.  In light of Watergate, dirty tricks, the enemies list and resignation, one might argue he did not pay sufficient attention to the message.  Despite the personality flaws which led to his political demise, his policies were very much in tune with the portraiture inked during the 1968 campaign.  For example, instead of the rampant anti-communist, Nixon opened the door to a new era of American-Chinese relations.  In 1960, he ran on a platform of states rights.  As president he expanded the reach of the federal government, creating the Environmental Protection Agency and supporting passage of Title IX which guaranteed equal funding for girls’ athletics at educational institutions.

Sadly, we will never be the beneficiaries of a similar chronicle of the 2016 election as McGinniss died of prostate cancer at the age of 71 in March 2014.  Having read many of his other books including Fatal Vision about the Jeffrey MacDonald murder case and The Last Brother: The Rise and Fall of Teddy Kennedy, I appreciated McGinniss’ ability to point out how ironic life can be.  Therefore, I would expect no less in the forever missing Selling of the President 2016.

Would McGinniss have described Donald Trump as the “anti-Nixon?”  While Nixon’s handlers urged him to be more measured and less threatening in 1968, Trump’s resurgence in the polls began when campaign strategists encouraged their candidate to be the untethered, politically incorrect firebrand for whom disaffected voters yearned. Family and associates tell us this is not the “real Trump.”  None of this matters.  Like Nixon, the real questions are, “Did the president-elect buy his own sales pitch?  Will he govern in accordance with the persona he sold to voters during the campaign?”  Or as he hinted in an interview Tuesday with the editorial staff of the New York Times, was this all just an act? Only time will tell.

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP