“The Quitter”

I vividly remember watching this as a nine-year-old on a VHF terrestrial broadcast station on my parents’ RCA console TV. It was nationally televised from the East Room on all three major networks. A teary-eyed Nixon expressed remorse—which a certain currently living… https://t.co/pZxvdBQI7L

— Xeorge Xonway (@gtconway3d) August 9, 2023

I was 19. The decade makes a difference.

I subscribed to Rolling Stone at the, back when it was published on newsprint in very large tabloid style, no staples. I had a stack of them in the poolroom (a patio we had enclosed). When Nixon gave this speech, they put his picture on the cover, a photo taken from the TV broadcast. Below the banner there were only two words on that cover, in black type as large as the magazine title:  “The Quitter,”

I kept that issue on the top of the stack for the next three years, until I married and moved out.

The decade made a difference. I watched that broadcast, too. I remember a lot of denying blame, but not a lot of remorse expressed. That magazine cover captured it perfectly.