The Watergate break-in is never uncovered?

[Dazey]

What happens if Hunt and the rest get out of the Watergate Hotel without being noticed in June 1972? Does Nixon finish out his term to 1977, or does something else derail his Presidency?

[Ebsy]

Nixon probably would have been seen as one of our greatest presidents in the 20th century. Also, the conservative revolution wouldn't have taken over the Republican party, saving the whole country a lot of grief.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

I disagree.

Nixon was barely keeping the oilmen and ranchers and such forth in line through persuasion and intimatidation and the IRS. They hated price controls, the EPA and the high taxes. Inflation would have hammered Nixon's second term most likely and Reagan might very well end up getting nominated in 1976 since Ford would likely not be a contender having never been President. The votes and the money for the GOP were in the South, Southwest and West. This shift probably still occurs in any scenario unless the inflation is removed somehow.

[NewYorkExpress]

We end up with a Nixonian Dictatorship/Dystopia ala Watchmen until he dies... after that, who knows?

[Mechaman]

We end up with a Nixonian Dictatorship/Dystopia ala Watchmen until he dies... after that, who knows?

Haha yes, the idea that the nation would be "better off" if Nixon was never caught is one of the most hilarious ideas ever.  More than likely, conservatism would take a more outright fascist approach than the faux libertarian-conservatism that happened under Reagan.

I predict someone will call this hyperbole, let me explain later.

[Illuminati Blood Drinker]

We end up with a Nixonian Dictatorship/Dystopia ala Watchmen until he dies... after that, who knows?

Haha yes, the idea that the nation would be "better off" if Nixon was never caught is one of the most hilarious ideas ever.  More than likely, conservatism would take a more outright fascist approach than the faux libertarian-conservatism that happened under Reagan.

I predict someone will call this hyperbole, let me explain later.

I don't think you're necessarily wrong, but I'm interested in hearing anyways.

[Lincoln Republican]

Even if Watergate is never uncovered, Nixon is still Nixon, with all his suspicions and insecurities.

Some other details dug up by the press or Democrats may still have tripped Nixon up, or he himself or someone in the Nixon high command may have tripped him up.

Without the White House tapes being uncovered, Nixon may well have survived in office until the end of his second term in 1977, however, the White House would still be operating under the same atmosphere of mistrust that prevailed throughout his Presidency.

Following his Presidency, without Watergate yet uncovered, I believe it most certainly would have come out post Presidency.

 

[Ebsy]

Yeah, I would tend to agree that there is no way that they could have kept the lid on Watergate forever with so many involved in the cover up. However, Reagan was involved in even more blatantly illegal things then Nixon, and his image has survived for some reason.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

It is amazing how the tapes, meant to help him write his own history, have largely been the source of defining him in the most negative light possible, that shown by his own words. The man who said what his particular audience wanted to hear whilst remaining firm on only a few foreign policy questions, has been revealed finally with regards to what he truly was and it isn't pretty.

Even if Nixon had come out of his Presidency reasonably popular and successful, we have seen this rodeo before. When Harding died, he was rather popular, thant he dirt came out.

[Beet]

Nothing much would have changed. The '74 recession would have killed Nixon's popularity, and the Republicans likely would have nominated Reagan but fallen short in '76. Then in '80, either Reagan comes back with an "I told you so" campaign or Bush wins the nomination but is pushed so far to the right that he basically is forced to become like Reagan, and history picks up where it left off in the real world. It was good that Nixon was caught because it demonstrated the principle that the president's hold on office is not unconditional. While that's always been the case in theory, it was never actually put to the test fully until Nixon's resignation.