In his hour of need, Richard Nixon turned to the beacon of mankind, the friend of the oppressed. To the Soviet Union!
Yes, as he approached his darkest hour of resignation, only the land of real existing socialism, in the form of General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev, reached out to him.
Just released State Department documents show Breshnev’s message came through long time Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin. He told Nixon:
“No doubt, there are some people — and not only in the United States — who anticipate that Richard Nixon won’t be able to take it and will crack under the pressure…But, we are pleased to note, you have no intention of giving them that satisfaction.”
Nixon quit despite the Bolshevik bucking up.
The parallels are haunting, if Richard Nixon had been living under house arrest at his Presidential Library/Hacienda until word of the pardon came. And if Gerald Ford had needed more military backing than Alexander Hague to take power.
Philippine President Gloria Arroyo pardoned Joseph Estrada, who’s Vice President she had been. Estrada is sort of the Ronald Reagan of the Philippines,
only more Charles Bronsonish. 
And if Reagan had been running spies in the White House in retirement.
He’s been living rough at his “ranch” 
building a Presidential Library,which Estrada says is
Reagan-inspired. 
It has the usual: a recreation of his office, grave to be, snapshots with Clinton and Mandela.
Estrada says it all comes back to Ronald Reagan:
“If a Hollywood grade-B actor can become a US President, a grade-A Filipino actor like me can do it better.”
Need I point out, Republicans all
The ever-changing rankings of George Bush by historians and in popular opinion can fill hours of fun, but Warren Harding stands like a rock in the ranks of bad presidents.
And Canada remembers!
From the Dominion comes a stirring YouTube salute to the little mourned Ohioan, who became the first President to visit Canada on his ill-fated Western journey towards death in San Francisco’s Palace Hotel. 
[not a plaque there, by the way]
Who knew Vancouver had a Harding Memorial? 
Let’s harken back to that bygone era through Harding’s words:
“No grim-faced fortifications mark our frontiers, no huge battleships patrol our dividing waters, no stealthy spies lurk in our tranquil border hamlets. Only a scrap of paper, recording hardly more than a simple understanding, safe-guards lives and properties on the Great Lakes, and only humble mile posts mark the inviolable boundary line for thousands of miles through farm and forest.”
“I would love to see a President Huckabee because if our president were named ‘Huckabee,” how bad could anything really seem?… It’d be as if the entire country was animated by Hanna Barbera. Can you imagine the Huckabee Monument?” 
– Stephen Colbert
Presentation is key
Excitement builds around the Bush Library reopening after renovation, and KBTX [“Your exclusive home for coverage of the remodeling“] has caught the fever. They are retailing the Bush Library’s claims of exclusive seating in it’s new Oval Office recreation:
“The Bush Museum will also present the only Oval Office exhibit that allows visitors to sit in the “seat of power†and have their photo taken behind the President’s desk. “
But the private sector has already answered this need.
You can have your picture taken sitting in a fake oval office and sign a fake Executive Order at the American Presidents Museum, nestled amidst the full family fun of Branson Missouri. Just try to ignore the presidential seal the size of a snow tire.
The “Show Me State” es muy, muy authentico!
