Nixon's Continual Quest for Challenge

Monday, Jan. 22, 1973

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THE ultimate political triumph—overwhelming re-election to the nation's highest office—was behind him. He had turned a mature 60 and his Inauguration this week for his new and final term was only days away. Yet the question lingered: What was success doing to Richard Nixon? The early evidence was disturbing. Silent, secretive and still suspicious, he seemed to be reaching, in a mood strangely compounded of euphoria and truculence, for greater power.

If that is indeed his intended course, a rare opportunity for more constructive leadership will have been ignored. The President who wins by a landslide and need never run again is in a unique position to use his general popularity to forge a new unity. Confident of his majority support, he can afford to become expansive and even treat his critics generously, appealing to higher motives. Yet all of Nixon's post-election actions suggest that he is determined to subdue his opponents, defy rather than reason with the Democratic Congress and run the Executive Branch by decree, brooking no contrary advice by strong-willed Cabinet subordinates. Although he has every reason to appreciate the vast public support at the polls, he acknowledges no obligation to explain his decisions to his constituents.

Much in the imperial Gaullist manner, Nixon granted a rare preInauguration interview to the Associated Press's Saul Pett. The interview, which Nixon insisted be confined to questions about his mood and personality, proved to be revealing, especially about the President's post-election feelings. Said Nixon: "After four years of the most devastating attacks on TV, in much of the media, in editorials and columns, and then all that talk in the last two or three weeks of the campaign of the gap narrowing . . . and then whap! A landslide, 49 states, 61% of the vote!" He paused, then continued: "You'd think I'd be elated . . . Well, you're so drained emotionally at the end, you can't feel much. You'd think that just when the time comes you'd have your greatest day. But there is this letdown."

As Nixon perceives the presidency, as well as his whole career, that letdown must never be allowed to prevail. There must always be a new challenge; it is all a constant battle. "I believe in the battle," he said in the interview, "whether it's the battle of a campaign or the battle of this office, which is a continuing battle. It's always there wherever you go. I, perhaps, carry it more than others because that's my way."

The interview may reinforce the analysis of Political Scientist James Barber, who has tagged Nixon an "active-negative" President, one who gains little satisfaction from his accomplishments, has "a persistent problem in managing his aggressive feelings" and is engaged in "a hard struggle to achieve and hold power." Others see Nixon as relishing the lonely role of a martyr who suffers constant criticism for doing what he believes to be best for society.