Why Nixon was never satisfied?

[TX Conservative Dem]

I've watched the movie "Nixon" and was wondering despite winning two terms as Prez, Nixon never seemed to be happy at anything and always going off at people including his wife, does anyone know when did Nixon had a nasty attitude ?

Was it after losing the CA Governor's Mansion to Pat Brown in 1962 (lost by 5 points) or was he still pissed off on losing to JFK in the 1960 elections ?

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

There was the fact that, despite a huge landslide in 1972, he could never get even a single Congressional majority.

[Lumine]

I think it was 1960 what drove him to the edge. He had been friends with Kennedy since 1948, and all of the sudden Kennedy mounts an all out assault on Nixon's character during the election and then wins after cows and dead men vote in Illinois and Texas (I'm not saying Kennedy stole that election, but it's possible, and it must have had a big psychological effect on Nixon).

Of course, what happened after that didn't help him at all:

He loses to Pat Brown after massive attacks from the press (many of them justified anyway), then Kennedy gets assassinated and becomes a martyr and then the GOP refuses to draft Nixon (he hoped to be drafted anyway). So Nixon starts to plan his comeback, he campaigns hard in 1966, wins the Republican Primary, fights a divided Democratic Party and seems to be able to win a 20 point landslide... And then HHH almost defeats him out of nowhere.

Then you have the whole Vietnam mess, the protesters, the Kent State shootings, Alexander Haig feeding him paranoia, etc, etc, etc... And alakazam! You have a paranoid, cynical and increasingly unhappy Richard Milhouse Nixon.

[Sec. of State Superique]

Richard Milhouse Nixon

[RosettaStoned]

 He felt that the Media and his enemies were always out to get him.

[Fuzzy Bear]

Nixon was a Gloomy Gus most of his life.  He grew up in a home with a hard father, an overtly religious mother, and two (2) siblings that died young, in a working class family at most.  His recollections of his childhood dripped with sadness, and the death of his brothers gave him a melancholy view of life in general.  He always viewed himself as the underdog; the poor kid at Whittier College, the football player not that big.  He was never given anything, and virtually everything he got, he earned through hard work, determination, discipline, and sheer grit.  There was no rich benefactor to send him to school.  There was also the shadow of death around him; Nixon viewed dying young as something that could well happen to him, and he was not only driven to succeed, but in a hurry to succeed.

These traits were reinforced in 1946, when a group of prominent Orange County (CA) businessmen recruited Nixon to run for Congress.  In Stephen Ambrose's NIXON, Ambrose talked about the view of the 1946 election as Armegeddon for the small businessmen who formed the backbone of the GOP at that time.  If the Democrats weren't stopped now it would be the end; they wouldn't be able to survive the ever-increasing regulations and the creeping socialism.  This is where Nixon became "Tricky Dick" for the first time; he stooped to dirty tricks and lies to beat a Democratic incumbent no one thought would lose.  Winning his first campaign that way cemented Nixon's view of politics as dog-eat-dog, and of the constant need to have an enemy. 

I suspect that Nixon was always in a hurry because he wanted to make his mark before he died.  It was why he backstabbed his California cronies (and Bob Taft) to support Eisenhower in 1952.  When Eisenhower suggested in 1955 that Nixon take a Cabinet post, rather than run for VP again, Nixon was aghast.  Eisenhower viewed such a move as gaining experience; Nixon saw himself being kicked down on the pecking order, and just after Ike had suffered a major heart attack.  This, just less than 4 years after having to defend himself on TV in the Checkers speech.  (Nixon's pessimism didn't let him see that Eisenhower, himself, knew that if Nixon was forced off the ticket, he, Eisenhower, wouldn't be able to get elected.)  The pessimism and desperation were reinforced in 1960 and in 1962 (and, to some degree, in 1968, an election he almost blew).  Nixon always felt he was being personally attacked, and he was right, but that was, in part, because he generated so many personal attacks.