Nixon the Friend

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 4-05-1992
Event Description: Professor Nixon begins a “Western Tour” for the Perot Campaign. Despite her failing health, Patricia Nixon travels along as well. “The Nixonites”, quiet for many years, take to the road with their aged leader. “I would follow Nixon almost anywhere,” country music singer Willie Nelson states as he departs on the tour, “I would even go near that stink hole called Washington, D.C., if I had to.”

Event Date: 4-12-1992
Event Description: Republican hecklers greet Professor Nixon as his motorcade enters Salt Lake City, Utah. When some in the crowd start throwing garbage, Nixon quips,” Well, at least I know what ideas these fellows throw around.” Nixon speech attracts a crowd of 30,000, far larger than was expected. “We stand at a new age,” Nixon tells the crowd, “With the specter of communism no longer haunting the world and new crisis over terrorism facing us, let us not retreat back to the days of isolation where we would label our enemy as ‘evil’ and never speak with them. We didn’t win the Cold War through cold isolation and we did not bring freedom to China by ignoring them. We need to face this latest crisis by fighting for peace, and not more war.”

Event Date: 4-15-1992
Event Description: Former Senator Eugene McCarthy (Democrat of Minnesota) and former Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm (Democrat of New York) join the Perot-Nixon Campaign, continuing an exodus of liberals to the support of the Texas maverick and the California progressive.

Event Date: 4-23-1992
Event Description: While speaking at a rally in Sacramento, California, Professor Nixon collapses from exhaustion. While the bookish intellectual recovers nearly instantly, he is whisked from the stage. “This is a right-wing conspiracy!” jokes Nixon as he is taken from the stage. He will return back to Whittier to recuperate. 

Event Date: 4-29-1992
Event Description: In Los Angeles, a jury acquits four police officers who are accused of beating black motorist Rodney King, an act which was caught on tape. In response to this verdict, thousands of people in the Los Angeles area take to the streets in full riot mode. Professor Nixon, watching the crisis unfolds on television, immediately calls Governor Wilson, begging him to, “Keep the crisis under control without reverting to Gestapo tactics.”

Event Date: 4-30-1992
Event Description: Professor Nixon meets with Governor Wilson as he arrives in Los Angeles to oversee the crisis management. “Things are going to get ugly if you make them that way,” Nixon warns the governor. The California State Guard is called in with the strict warning, “Do not use lethal force unless you yourselves are being attacked.” The LAPD is called in to defend residential areas which Professor Nixon tells the governor, “Are the most vulnerable to rioters.”

Event Date: 5-01-1992
Event Description: Due to a humanitarian handling of the crisis, the rioters in Los Angeles lose their thunder. By the end of then day the riots are over, with less than $3 million in property damage. “It’s not easy to tell the people that the government wants you dead when the only people killing anyone are the rioters themselves,” Professor Nixon tells the Los Angeles Times, “I can only applaud Governor Wilson and Mayor Bradley for listening to my call for restraint. I also must thank the LAPD and the state guard a million times over for not giving into their base brutal instincts but instead listening to the better angels of their nature.”

Event Date: 5-02-1992
Event Description: At a Republican fundraising dinner in Tampa, Florida, Senator Larry Pressler states that the Rodney King Riot was caused not by racial tensions or poverty the Watts areas of Los Angeles. Senator Pressler instead blames the “Poverty of Values” in American society. “I believe the lawless social anarchy which we saw is directly related to the breakdown of family structure,” Senator Pressler tells the crowd in an after dinner speech, “The personal responsibility and social order in too many areas of our society is lacking, causing to a disrespect for law and order.” “I have no comment,” is all that Professor Nixon can muster upon hearing this explanation.

Event Date: 5-06-1992
Event Description: “The Man who Saved Watts” blares the cover of Time Magazine, accompanied with a picture of Professor Nixon speaking with Governor Wilson. “Nixon showed a clear head and a tolerant heart when millions around the nation were hollering for blood,” the article reads, “He is truly the man who saved the city of Los Angeles from an inferno.” Comparing Nixon’s attitude to that of Senator Pressler’s “Poverty of Values” speech, many voters are turning to Perot as a reasonable and sane choice in the election.

Event Date: 5-11-1992
Event Description: In a major surprise, the Gallup Poll puts Bush-Pressler only a few points ahead of Perot-Nixon, a ticket becoming the official rival to the incumbent president. The poll puts President Bush at 46% and Perot at 38%, with Senator Bradley, now the official presumptive Democratic nominee, at just 16%.

Event Date: 5-20-1992
Event Description: Trying to gain traction in the election, Senator Bill Bradley names Congresswoman Patricia Schroeder (Democrat of Colorado) as his running-mate. “I’m pulling out the ‘gender card’,” Senator Bradley tells Henry Marquard, his campaign manager, “However; Perot has already played the ‘Nixon Card’, which was pretty low.”

Event Date: 5-29-1992
Event Description: The states of Alaska, New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio issue reports that Perot-Nixon will be on their state ballots, assuring that the ticket will be on the ballot in all fifty states and Washington, D.C.

Event Date: 6-04-1992
Event Description: Secretary of State James Baker announces that world response to the genocide in Somalia has been effective in ending the crisis in that nation. “In January 1993,” Secretary Baker announces, “The government of Sudan will take power once again, and sanity will be restored.” Despite this announcement appearing to be good news for the Bush Campaign, most pundits comment on how Professor Nixon was the first man to publicly call for relief and intervention in Somalia. 

Event Date: 6-13-1992
Event Description: A U.S. barge harbored in Seattle, Washington, explodes, causing the deaths of 215 people and injuring more than three thousand. This attack is the worst attack on U.S. soil since Pearl Harbor in 1941. “This attack will not go unanswered,” President Bush tells the people of Seattle, “Those harmed here today will be avenged. We are going to get the folks who are responsible for this terrible act and bring swift justice to them.” This tough talk helps comfort the city and raise President Bush’s standings in the polls.

Event Date: 6-14-1992
Event Description: CIA Director Robert Gates reveals to President Bush that the attacks yesterday where, “Orchestrated by Al-Qaeda and supported by the government of Syria. The Syrians have planned an attack on our soil since we backed the Lebanese in their movement for independence.” President Bush, desperate to reassert authority over the situation, runs with the story. “There is a definite link between the nation of Syria and the terrorist attacks of June the thirteenth,” President Bush tells the nation in an address from the Oval Office, “With this in mind, I herby and declaring that our soldiers will root out those in Syria responsible for the attack and end the terrorist network of Al-Qaeda.”   

Event Date: 6-15-1992
Event Description: U.S. troops invade Syria, the nation in which the terror attacks of 6/13 have been tied to by the CIA. “Operation Swift Justice” begins flawlessly with U.S. troops overrunning several terrorist cells in the southern part of Syria. President Assad of Syria demands the immediate withdrawal of U.S. soldiers, “Or they will face the greatest annihilation in the history of warfare.” Secretary of State Baker sends Assad a message that they have no interest in removing him from power, “But only of cleaning out the terrorists from within your borders.” Assad does not listen and gives the United States forty-eight hours to withdraw from his borders.

Event Date: 6-18-1992
Event Description: The city of Quasim, Syria, is captured by U.S. forces, directly in defiance of the ultimatum from President Assad. In response to this action, President Assad readies the Syrian Army to, “Resist the Yankee invasion of our sacred homeland.” “This is exactly what I have feared since this ‘war’ on terror has begun,” Professor Nixon declares in a speech in Denver, Colorado, “Our efforts to fight a faceless enemy have led to a real war against a real army.”

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 6-23-1992
Event Description: U.S. and Syrian soldiers meet on the field of battle for the first time outside of the city of Al Quasyr, a major hub of terrorist activity. The battle wages for only eight hours with a U.S. victory. “The Syrian Army melted like cheese,” General Norman Schwarzkopf, the leading officer of “Operation Swift Justice” reports to the president, “We will have no trouble reaching Damascus if need be.”

Event Date: 6-25-1992
Event Description: While at a town hall meeting in St. Louis, Missouri, Professor Nixon almost falters when poised a loaded question by a Vietnam Veteran: “Do you, a man who did not even serve in the greatest war for freedom ever waged, World War II, want our troops to win the war on terrorism?” “Now first of all,” Nixon responds, “I did not serve in World War II because it was against my religious principals. I see war as something that never achieves anything but hatred and bitterness, so I do not care what you think about my war service. Secondly, I do not want a victory in the war on terror; because I fell such a war should never have been waged.” The response to this is almost universally negative, so Nixon rephrases. “I do not want young men and women to die in a war that can not be won,” Nixon responds, “I want them to live and lead productive lives, lives that build things and help their communities. Wars that are against undefined enemies, create new enemies and can not be won do not help them or anyone else. The only way we can defeat the terrorists is to fight the ignorance and poverty that makes them become terrorists. To fight them with bullets will only strengthen their resolve to kill us even more.” This response it greeted by cheers by some, but also by jeers and hisses. “That was a question that had no good answer,” Nixon tells his wife as they leave St. Louis.

Event Date: 6-26-1992
Event Description: “Nixon once again shows he is a defeatist,” Rush Limbaugh states on his radio program, “Now he is saying that we can only defeat those who want us dead by speaking with them. That is the biggest load of baloney I have seen since I worked at an Oscar Meyer plant in my early days.” Across the country, Nixon’s statements in St. Louis have started much heated debate. “He makes sense,” television host Phil Donahue declares. “He’s anti-American,” Senator Pressler tells Larry King. Ross Perot simply responds, “At least we’re getting air time again.”

Event Date: 7-01-1992
Event Description: The Gallup Poll shows that the 6/13 Attacks and the Syrian War, as Operation Swift Justice has been renamed, have helped President Bush in the polls. His approval rating stands at 64%, the highest of any president seeking reelection in the history of polling. In the general election poll, Bush-Pressler has 56%, Perot-Nixon has 32% and Bradley- Schroeder takes a negligible 12%. “One thing is sure,” quips Tonight Show host Jay Leno, “We can predict that Bill Bradley will come in third, just above write-in votes for Mickey Mouse.”

Event Date: 7-10-1992
Event Description: Professor Nixon meets with Ross Perot in Houston, Texas. Perot has grown very paranoid and is thinking of dropping out of the race. “That would be ridiculous,” Professor Nixon explains to Perot, “We’ve come so far, why would you want to do a dumb thing like that? We can win, Mr. Perot, all you have to do is keep in the race.” Perot, with these words from his trusted friend, agrees to keep in the race, even though his behavior is growing more erratic by the day.

Event Date: 7-13-1992
Event Description: The Democratic National Convention at Madison Square Garden in New York City helps revive the faltering Bradley Campaign. “I trust my future in the hands of a basketball player,” former Harlem Globetrotter Meadowlark Lemmon tells the convention, “I wouldn’t trust my country to anyone else.” Congresswoman Patricia Schroeder, the party’s nominee for Vice-President, attacks President Bush for, “Using a national tragedy as a photo opportunity,” and Ross Perot for, “Showing the capability to lead a nation equal to that of one of the three stooges.” Senator Bradley himself gives a powerful address, calling on, “The spirit of now to retake America and give it back to the people” Governor Bob Casey (Democrat of Pennsylvania), who had complained that he was being shout out of the convention, is allowed to speak, and nothing much is said. “Well,” Governor Casey says after giving his speech, “I really don’t think that was worth complaining over.”

Event Date: 7-17-1992
Event Description: Following a successful Democratic Convention, the Gallup Poll shows President Bush’s lead being cut down by several points. Bush-Pressler has 51%, Perot-Nixon has 30% and Bradley-Schroeder has 19%, still not a much, but an improvement over a few weeks ago.

Event Date: 7-18-1992
Event Description: In a firefight outside of the city of Hims, Syria, U.S. troops kill three terrorist leaders, amongst them thirty-five year old Osama bin Laden. Bin Laden, the son of a millionaire construction executive, was tied to the 6/13 attacks on Seattle.

Event Date: 7-19-1992
Event Description: “Swift justice has come to those who harmed our nation,” President Bush tells the country in an address from the Oval Office, “So now, the mission is over.” Despite the mobilized Syrian Army, President Bush orders all U.S. troops out of Syria. “I do not want an urban war in Damascus,” President Bush explains to Secretary of Defense Richard Cheney, “That would be an impossible war to win.”

Event Date: 7-25-1992
Event Description: The last U.S. soldier leaves southern Syria and reenters Lebanon, a strong U.S. ally. The Assad Government is greatly weakened by the humiliation of defeat to the United States and revolution is ripe in Damascus.

Event Date: 7-31-1992
Event Description: In a speech to the Peace League of St. Paul, Minnesota, Professor Nixon is unapologetic about his comments on the War on Terror. “The War on Terror is a bumper sticker slogan,” Professor Nixon states, “It is a red meat talking point for a Republican Party desperately trying to find an issue to keep together it’s loose control on power.” As could be expected, “the War on Terror is a bumper sticker”, becomes a very controversial statement, with even Perot telling Larry King, “That may have been a little over the top.”

Event Date: 8-08-1992
Event Description: Trying to outpace his new image as a defeatist, Professor Nixon meets with the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Des Moines, Iowa. “I do not believe that America should ever lose a war,” Nixon explains to them in a speech, “I am not a ‘defeatist’ in that regard. I am a man of peace, and have been so my entire life. I believe the best war is the war that is not fought. I believe the only civil war is the war that is not fought. I believe that war leads only to negative consequences, and I have seen them.” Nixon then goes on to explain the hell eh saw when he was in charge of cleaning up landmines in Southeast Asia. “War has tremors that affect the innocent,” Nixon states, “I saw little girls without hands, women missing feet and homeless men, whom had lost their jobs because a landmine maimed them. That is the wart I know, and that is why I feel it achieves nothing,” The veterans give a standing ovation to the professor, most with tears in their eyes. “I have heard some great speeches in my time,” ABC News’ Sam Donaldson states that night, “And I will be honest, this speech by Professor Richard M. Nixon was one of them.”

Event Date: 8-20-1992
Event Description: The Republican National Convention in Dallas, Texas, opens. “Country First and Always” is the dominant theme, with every speaker discussing the importance of winning the War on Terror. “President Bush has served his country in many ways,” Senator Larry Pressler states in his vice-presidential acceptance address, “And I want to serve him in his greatest crusade: ridding the world of Islamic terrorism and making this world once again safe for freedom.” President Bush’s own speech is themed around the word “missions” and is not well received, but even that can not stop the convention from giving the Bush-Pressler Ticket a slight bounce. “I can only hear ‘mission’ so many times,” Professor Nixon tells his wife, “Before I accept the ‘mission’ of turning off the television.”

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 9-01-1992
Event Description: Consumer activist Ralph Nader takes to the stump for Professor Nixon, brining with him some very left-winged groups. “Well we have the backing of seven Socialist organizations, eight people’s communes, five Social Democratic networks and a hemp necklace,” Professor Nixon jokes in a speech in Hartford, Connecticut, “And who says our campaign isn’t brining people together?”

Event Date: 9-11-1992
Event Description: Professor Nixon marks his fifty-fourth wedding anniversary by returning home to Whittier, California, to recuperate for the October Campaign. “Well, Pat,” Nixon tells his wife on the airplane ride home, “We’re down twenty-three points in the last Gallup Poll, but I’ve never felt more confident of victory.” 

Event Date: 9-17-1992
Event Description: President Assad of Syria is overthrown in a military coup by General Imad Mughniyeh, a Shiite extremist. This was not what the Bush Administration hoped for when they discussed an overthrow of Assad’s regime. “Now,” Professor Nixon tells a rally in Phoenix, Arizona, “Our warlike regime in Washington has put an even greater Israel hater in power at Damascus, so is that the ultimate goal of the war on terror? Are we supposed to create new enemy states out of our endless wars?”

Event Date: 9-20-1992
Event Description: Secretary of State Baker meets with General Mughniyeh in Damascus, Syria, hoping to convince him to respect the independence and security of Israel and Lebanon. “He’s easy enough to get along with,” Secretary Baker tells President Bush when he returns, “He’ll go along with us for now, while his army is weak. I can not tell you what he’ll do once it is restored.”

Event Date: 9-27-1992
Event Description: “The Perot Doctrine” is released, showing the foreign policy positions of H. Ross Perot. The planks are dovish, calling for an end to “nation building” and “CIA coups.” “We need to respect the rights of nation states,” reads the doctrine, “And let them be. If we do that, if we are humble, we will not be seen as enemies any longer.” The doctrine, crafted by Professor Nixon, is the first foreign policy step taken by Perot.   

Event Date: 10-01-1992
Event Description: President Bush, Senator Bradley and Mr. Perot meet for their first televised debate, with Perot’s folksy mannerisms winning the crowd over. When asked if he had a lack of foreign policy experience, Perot responds, “Well I certainly don’t have any experiences putting anti-Jewish generals in charge of countries.” The response, a not so thinly veiled assault on the Syrian War, is applauded by the crowd at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.

Event Date: 10-03-1992
Event Description: The Gallup Poll shows that President Bush’s massive lead has shrunk with the bad news in Syria and his terrible debate performance. The latest poll shows Bush-Pressler with 47%, Perot-Nixon with 38% and Bradley- Schroeder at 15%. Perot and Nixon have solidified liberal support behind their candidacy, at great expense to Senator Bradley.

Event Date: 10-12-1992
Event Description: Professor Nixon arrives in Atlanta, Georgia, for the vice-presidential debater. He makes sure to stop by the home of his longtime friend, the Reverend Martin Luther King, Junior. King, sixty-three years old and still leading labor and hunger strikes around the globe, formally endorses the Nixon-Perot Ticket, something he has never done before. “I know that Mr. Perot has great decision making skills,” King tells the press, “That’s evidenced by who he chose as a running-mate.”

Event Date: 10-13-1992
Event Description: The Vice-Presidential Debate at the Theater for the Arts at Georgia Technical University is an exciting event. Professor Nixon and Senator Pressler get into a verbal barb over the statement, “The War on Terror is a bumper sticker.” “How can you win a war with that attitude?” Pressler asks the crowd, “The answer is you can’t.” “You can’t win a war against an enemy you can’t pin down,” Nixon explains, “You might as well fight a war on dandruff.” Congresswoman Schroeder is not ignored, as she intersects, “You especially can’t win a war if your administration allowed mad men to take the reins in nations. How can the president talks about the ‘mission to ensure freedom’ and allow generals like that man in Syria to hold power? Why didn’t he finish the mission in Syria?” Pressler, facing attacks from booth fronts, holds his own, but is not seen as the winner of the debate. Professor Nixon, with his honed oratorical skills, is seen as the winner. His closing line in his closing statement is the clincher, “I want us to live in a world our parent’s would be proud we lived in.”

Event Date: 10-15-1992
Event Description: With Nixon’s powerful debate performance, his campaign is helped more in the polls. The latest Gallup Poll has Bush-Pressler at 45%, Perot-Nixon at 40% and poor Senator Bradley at just 15%. “I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes,” William Safire writes in the Washington Times, “But it looks like our country could have a third party president.”

Event Date: 10-21-1992
Event Description: Trying to seize another huge lead, President Bush signs the Glenn-Harkin Minimum Wage Act, raising the minimum wage by $2.25. This move helps the president with blue collar laborers, who have been moving to Perot’s column.

Event Date: 11-02-1992
Event description: Professor Nixon makes his final appeal fore votes in San Francisco, California, urging Americans to, “Not complain or wish for something better, but to vote for something better.” Nixon confesses that he is sick of the two party systems, “And I spent seventy-years as a Republican, give or take a few years. I was a very partisan creature, and now I know I was wrong. We need a third voice in Washington, and with your help, Ross Perot and I can be that third voice.”   

Event Date: 11-03-1992
Event Description: President George H.W. Bush is reelected, but just barely. Independents Ross Perot and Richard Nixon come in second place, in the strongest third party finish in American history.

George H.W. Bush/Larry Pressler (R): 275 EV; 41.1% of the PV
Ross Perot/Richard M. Nixon (I): 185 EV; 37.7% of the PV
Bill Bradley/Patricia Schroeder (D): 78 EV; 21.2% of the PV
Others (Libertarian, New Alliance, etc.): 0 EV; 0.1% of the PV

“We did far better than I ever expected,” Professor Nixon tells disappointed Perot for President supporters in Austin, Texas, “This movement did more than anyone ever thought it could, and most of all, we’ve changed the way people think in Washington. I am quite proud of Ross Perot and you guys, because you are the ones who made this second place finish a reality.”

Event Date: 11-05-1992
Event Description: In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Professor Nixon states he will not rejoin the Republican Party. “I am a man without a party,” Nixon says, “I just do not have an ideology that fits either major party.”

Event Date: 11-19-1992
Event Description: Professor Nixon and his wife make their final visit to China, a land they have both been to numerous times. Over the next seven days, the Nixon’s are shown the modern hospitals, schools and democracy which has grown from the once communist nation. “I have always been amazed to see the good that people can do in the world,” Nixon tells the Chinese Legislature, who invited him to address the body, “I can once again be amazed, because you have done wonders for this nation and made millions of peoples lives better.”

Event Date: 12-09-1992
Event Description: Ross Perot tells Larry King Live that he will undoubtedly run for president again in 1996, and will chose a running-mate like Professor Nixon. “He was an invaluable asset to the campaign,” Perot tells King, “He had a way of being smart, but not so smart he offended people. He was a likable egghead, and that alone is an achievement.”

Event Date: 12-25-1992
Event Description: On Christmas Day, Professor Nixon receives a phone call from President Bush. “I hope that that there no hard feelings from the campaign,” President Bush tells Nixon, “I tried to never smear your name, professor.” “Even if you did I wouldn’t have cared,” Nixon responds, “I’ve been in politics since I lost my bid for Whittier High School Class President, and that was the dirtiest campaign of my life. I’ve been hit with mud, and I never take it personally. If I did I would have an enemies’ list a mile long.”

Event Date: 12-30-1992
Event Description: Professor Nixon writes a letter that is dropped inside of a Los Angles high school time capsule to be opened in 2050. “The great crises of our time have passed,” Professor Nixon writes, “Communism, Nazism and imperialism have been defeated, but we still suffer from poverty, bigotry and injustice. Those who read this in 2050, do these still haunt you? If they do, I fear for society. If they do not, then there is hope to continue.”     

[Psychic Octopus]

This is great!

[PBrunsel]

This is great!

Thank you very much Nik. Coming from the author of a fine timeline I take this as quite the compliment.

[Kaine for Senate '18]

PBrunsel, another excellent update   I'm glad you have written another timeline, and I hope you will write more after this.

[RI]

They were so close! T_T

[Captain Chaos]

It will be interesting to see what effect Perot's third party success ITTL 1992 will have on the 1994 midterm elections, and what type of political path that Barack Obama will take.

I assume that New Hampshire Democrats in 1992 were more comfortable with Bill Bradley's moderation than Mario Cuomo's New Deal pro-labor liberalism.

Had Cuomo won the Democratic nomination, Perot most likely does not come close to winning 37 percent of the vote or even finish in second place.

[Historico]

Strong Installment PB,  think it would have been Ironic for Perot/Nixon to have forced the election to the House(perhaps if Bradley ran a stronger campaign) and Nixon could have still made it to the Vice Presidency but thats only if the Democrats still hold a majority in Congress like they did in OTL 1992 election. So do you plan on continuing this TL after '94?

[PBrunsel]

Historico,

I plan on having Professor Nixon live beyond 1994. After all, without the stress of the presidency he has at least a few more years added onto his life.

I thank everyone for their kind words.

[Captain Chaos]

Cool.

[CCA]

Brilliant.

Hope you carry on with this.

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 1-01-1993
Event Description: Senator Arlen Specter (Republican of Pennsylvania) meets with Professor Nixon in Whittier, California. The Keystone senator tells the professor that he is going to finally introduce, “The Freeze Law, once and for all end the production of nuclear weapons in the United States.” “Senator,” Nixon comments, “I thank you for telling me, and I hope it passes. The problem is that you’ve come twenty years too late for it to really mean anything.”

Event Date: 1-20-1993
Event Description: President George H.W. Bush is sworn in for a second term as president, with Professor Nixon not attending the ceremony due to illness. “Had I came to the inauguration I would never have been quiet, and at my age that is not healthy. You have to learn something from history,” Nixon writes President Bush in a letter, “When guys who are very old go to inaugurations and don’t shut up they die a month later.”

Event Date: 1-29-1993
Event Description: Senators Specter, Edward Kennedy (Democrat of Massachusetts) and Orrin Hatch (Republican of Utah) introduce the Freeze Act, forever outlawing the production and testing of nuclear weapons in the United States and it’s coastlines.

Event Date: 2-09-1993
Event Description: President Bush announces he will support the Freeze Resolution, telling the press, “It is time for the United States to close the final chapter of the Cold War.” Conservative members of Congress plan on fighting the bill, with Congressman Newt Gingrich (Republican of Georgia), the House Minority Whip, leading the battle against the bill. “These bombs are money saving devices as much as they are defensive weapons,” Gingrich tells the Washington Post, “Every bomb made saves us the cost of hiring more soldiers, they make fiscal sense.”   

Event Date: 2-15-1993
Event Description: “The Sunset” by Richard Nixon is released. In his latest book, Professor Nixon outlines what the final years of the 20th Century mean for the world. He predicts that the War on Terror will lead to a rise in violent radical Islam throughout the Middle Eats and the islands of the South Pacific. “We need a humble foreign policy,” Nixon writes, “Where we are greeted not as liberators, but as friends.” Unlike Nixon’s others books, this work is greeted by mixed reviews. “’The Sunset’ is liberal defeatism,” pans the Washington Times. “Nixon’s latest book shows a fine view into a possible future for our country,” writes the New York Times.

Event Date: 2-22-1993
Event Description: Following a close vote in the House of Representatives, the United States Senate passes the Freeze Act by a wide margin, with only four senators opposing: Bob Smith (Republican of New Hampshire), Jesse Helms (Republican of North Carolina), J. Strom Thurmond (Republican of South Carolina) and Trent Lott (Republican of Mississippi). “The gangs all there,” Nixon comments when he sees the “no” votes.

Event Date: 2-24-1993
Event Date: President Bush signs the Freeze Act in a Rose Garden Ceremony. Professor Nixon is in attendance, and is given one of the pens used to sign the bill. “I think I have a pen from every president since Eisenhower,” Nixon comments as President Bush hands him the pen.

Event Date: 3-03-1993
Event Description: Ambassador to the Court of St. James Raymond G. H. Seitz, a personal friend of President Bush, resigns his position to reenter the private sector. President Bush asks Governor Pete Wilson (Republican of California) if he will accept the position. “Don’t touch it,” Professor Nixon writes to Wilson, “That is a position for the politically dead, but you are still White House timber.”

Event Date: 3-05-1993
Event Description: Wanting to build up his foreign policy credentials for a White House bid, Governor Wilson accepts the appointment to be Ambassador to the United Kingdom. In two days he will be confirmed for the job and Lieutenant Governor Leo T. McCarthy will become the first Democratic Governor of California since 1983.

Event Date: 3-11-1993
Event Description: An attempted coup against General Mughniyeh in Damascus, Syria, is crushed by the government’s superior airpower. “General Schwarzkopf made the error of not taking away all the helicopters from the former Assad Regime,” Professor Nixon tells 60 Minutes, “This superior airpower is what led to the slaughter of anti- Mughniyeh rioters in Damascus.”

Event Date: 3-28-1993
Event Description: Governor McCarthy signs the first Car Tax in the history of California. The tax affects the purchase of all automobiles and automobile insurance by placing a 6% sales tax increase on automobiles and a hiked fee for insurance. “This is to help balance our very unbalanced budget,” Governor McCarthy tells the press; “This is not a permanent measure, but just one to create temporary revenue.”

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 4-02-1993
Event Description: In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Professor Nixon questions the “temporary” status of the Car Tax. “If there is one thing I have learned from very Democrat I have met,” Professor Nixon states, “No tax is ever ‘temporary’, as they seem to have never met a tax they didn’t like.” Attorney General Dan Lungren, the Republican front-runner for governor of California in 1994, seconds this opinion.

Event Date: 4-13-1993
Event Description: The United Nations Council on Famine Relief begins a major campaign to end starvation in Sun-Saharan Africa. Koffi Annan, the diplomat in charge of the program, uses an article written by Professor Nixon in the 1960s as the guideline for the program. However, he does not tell anyone that this is the template he is using, instead crediting it to himself.

Event Date: 4-17-1993
Event Description: Former Perot campaign worker Dean Barkley meets with Professor Nixon, asking the aging intellectual if he has an interest in seeking state office in 1994 as an independent. “I know it would be difficult for a man of my age to win any office,” Professor Nixon tells Barkley, “But I may make a bid for the governor’s seat just so I could say I ran for the seat in Sacramento.”

Event Date: 4-20-1993
Event Description: Savings and Loan Companies around the country collapse today as the United States Congress refuses to give them a federal bail out. Since 1990, savings and loans throughout the country have been going belly up, but artificial stimuli from tax cuts and corporate welfare propped them up. With the Senate refusing to further bail out the industry, savings and loan companies throughout the country collapse, costing Americans pensions and home loans.   

Event Date: 4-21-1993
Event Description: Professor Nixon wins a Tony Award for Spoken Word. His audio tape for “The Sunset” wins the award, and Nixon himself accepts it in person. “A Tony Award?” Nixon states in his acceptance address, “For spoken word? I always fancied myself a musician, as I can play the piano and the guitar. I guess I could have been a member of a boy’s band, or maybe a hip hop group if there had been a decent one when I was a boy.”

Event Date: 4-29-1993
Event Description: Governor McCarthy signs the first Grocery Tax in California history, raising the sales tax on all groceries by 2.5%. With the country slowly entering a recession caused by the savings and loan collapse, California consumers voice vocal opposition to this decision by the governor.

Event Date: 5-05-1993 
Event Description: A Gallup Poll with a hypothetical match-up for California governor shows surprising results. With Governor McCarthy as the Democrat, Attorney General Lungren as the Republican and Professor Nixon as an independent, the polls show Nixon in second place and close to first. Attorney General Lungren leads with just 36% of the vote, Nixon takes second with 33% and McCarthy is at third with 31% of the vote. This poll shows the unpopularity of Governor McCarthy, who had made the unpopular decision to raise or create new taxes to deal with the budget crisis, and the strength of an independent bid for governor by Nixon, who will be eighty-one in 1994.

Event Date: 5-11-1993
Event Description: It is revealed in the New York Times that Koffi Annan’s “Annan Strategy” in Sub-Saharan Africa is really a plan written by Professor Nixon in 1967. Annan is chastised by the media for plagiarism, but Professor Nixon does not mind. “As long as the people of Africa are fed,” Nixon tells the press, “I don’t care if Annan wears a Nixon mask and claims to be me. He does a good job in Africa, and I support him.”

Event Date: 5-13-1993
Event Description: Despite Nixon’s kind words, the United Nations General Assembly publicly reprimands Koffi Annan for plagiarism and dishonesty, but keeps him in his post.

Event Date: 5-22-1993
Event Description: California Attorney General Dan Lungren announces his candidacy for the Republican nomination for Governor of California in 1994. “Governor McCarthy is the tax man,” Attorney General Lungren states in his announcement, “This November let’s declares: the tax man go-eth!” Professor Nixon is not impressed by Lungren, whom he has referred to in articles as, “A mountain of ego in a lawyer’s suit.”

Event Date: 5-30-1993
Event Description: Professor Nixon meets with Senator Ed Zschau in Washington, D.C., to ask him if he has a moderate Republican candidate for governor of California selected. “Congressman Bill Baker has shown interest in the office,” Senator Zschau tells Nixon, “But I don’t think he can beat Lungren. He is too unknown statewide.” “Why don’t you run, Senator?” Nixon asks, almost begging. “Because I only got 52% in my reelection bid last year,” Senator Zschau, “Against Barbara Boxer, a very left-winged congresswoman who was almost unelectable statewide. I can’t run, professor.”

Event Date: 6-03-1993
Event Description: The Bush Administration declares that the nation of Iran is a, “Chief backer of international terrorism,” and put strict sanctions on the country. “This is an outrageous decision,” Professor Nixon tells National Public Radio (NPR), “Iran is not a bastion of human rights, but that is the fault of their government, not their people. We should not put trade sanctions of the people of Iran, any more than they should be on the people of Cuba, as these actions only embitter the people against America, and out ideals.”

Event Date: 6-11-1993
Event Description: Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi (Democrat of California) introduces the Equality in the Army Act, ending the policy of excluding homosexuals from the U.S. Army. Professor Nixon had been one of many to write the progressive congresswoman over this issue. “While I do not support the homosexual life style for reasons of religion,” Professor Nixon wrote, “I can not tolerate bigotry against any group, especially a group who has never tried to cause any harm to their country or their communities.”

Event Date: 6-12-1993
Event Description: In response to the Equality in the Army Act, Congressman Hal Rogers (Republican of Kentucky) introduces the Military Normalcy Act, establishing the precedent of “don’t ask, don’t tell” in terms of admitted homosexuals in the army. “I don’t care what someone does in his own home,” Congressman Rogers tells the House, “But I do care what someone does in the army. It is not necessary to serve in the armed forces, so I see no reason to not pass this bill.”

Event Date: 6-15-1993
Event Description: President Bush weighs in on the gays in the military debate, telling Mike Wallace of ABC News, “I support Congressman Rogers’ bill as it seems to be the one which is most fair to both sides.” The president explains that he can see why military officers would feel uncomfortable with openly gay soldiers. “We know what they do,” the president states, then he trail off with some murmurs.

Event Date: 6-16-1993
Event Description: The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLT) demand an apology from President Bush for his comments in his interview with Mike Wallace. “Te president insinuated that homosexual people creep out or frighten people,” task force attorney Austen McClaine tells the press, “This is offensive and untrue, thus the president must apologize.” No apology comes from the president, but White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater does state, “The president acknowledges he used poor wording.”

Event Date: 6-22-1993
Event Description: Pat Nixon dies of lung cancer at the age of 81, with her husband Richard by her side. “I feel as if the light has gone from my life now,” Nixon confines to a friend, “She was my life, far more than my writing, elections or offices.”

Event Date: 6-25-1993
Event Description: The funeral for Thelma “Pat” Nixon is held at Whittier Community Cemetery. Amongst the honored guests are former President Ronald Reagan and First Lady Nancy Reagan, Ambassador Pete Wilson, former California Governors George Christopher and George Deukmejian, Congressman Jim Leach (Republican of Iowa) and two-hundred Nixonites, led by Jane Fonda. “My wife was always the better person in our partnership,” Nixon tells the funeral goers, “She bore with me through my travels abroad, my government work, my book tours, my missions near and far, and she never complained. She is the best person I have ever known.”       

Event Date: 6-27-1993
Event Description: An American destroyer in the Persian Gulf is reportedly attacked by an Iranian cruiser. Secretary of Defense Richard Cheney calls for an investigation into the Persian Gold Incident, but tells the press, “No immediate response should be expected. We can’t start a war over suspicion.” “Well,” Professor Nixon confines in a letter to Ambassador Pete Wilson, “At least Cheney isn’t war hungry, yet.” 

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 7-08-1993
Event Description: Congressman Bill Brady announces his candidacy for the Republican nomination for Governor of California. The announcement creates little excitement as Congressman Brady is relatively unknown and lacks any dramatic flash. “Brady is merchandise that just won’t sell,” Nixon writes to Senator Zschau, “He’s a nice enough fellow, but that is the truth.”

Event Date: 7-11-1993
Event Description: A Gallup Poll shows that no Republican can defeat Attorney General Lungren in the primary. Lungren defeats Congressman Brady by a 63-28% margin. Lungren defeats Senator Ed Zschau by a 55-42% margin. Finally, Lungren defeats Professor Nixon by a 61-33% margin, but that is only if Nixon runs as a Republican. The same poll shows that Nixon would be a competitor for the governor’s mansion if he ran as an independent: Lungren stands at 36%, Nixon takes 33% and McCarthy has 31%.

Event Date: 7-14-1993
Event Description: Secretary of Defense Cheney announces, “The Persian Gulf Incident has been proven to be a series of small errors, and not an organized attack on America’s naval vessels in that strategic region.” While some national security “hawks” cry foul and demand an attack on Iran, calmer heads accept the statement, one being Professor Nixon.

Event Date: 7-27-1993   
Event Description: In a latter to the Israeli government, Professor Nixon asks them to grant clemency to recently captured Nazi prison guard John Demjanjuk. “Mr. Demjanjuk is guilty of being forced to do a job he did not want,” Nixon writes, “He can not go to prison for being forced to accept a position on threat of death.” While this argument is debated, the Israeli court decides to listen to Nixon and releases John Demjanjuk.

Event Date: 8-04-1993
Event Description: Judge Stephen Whitehead refuses parole for officers Stacey Koon and Laurence Powell, two officers tied to the beating of Rodney King. There five year jail sentence will continue.

Event Date: 8-12-1993
Event Description: The World Food Prize awards Richard Nixon a lifetime achievement award for, “Dedication to those living in starvation and poverty around the world.”

Event Date: 8-20-1993
Event Description: Secretary of State James Baker announces that the Bush Administration will begin to, “Reevaluate the PLO,” to see if it can be removed from the list of terrorist organizations. “This is a requirement,” Professor Nixon tells the New York Times in his first interview since his wife’s death, “If the United States ever wants to return to a prominent place at the table in Middle Eastern peace politics.”

Event Date: 8-29-1993
Event Description: In yet another unpopular move, the California State Legislature and Governor McCarthy withhold state income tax rebates, stating once again that the budget crisis demands they be postponed or entirely withheld for the 1994-1995 fiscal year. “Governor McCarthy is a man of principle,” Nixon tells Congressman Bill Brady in a letter, “It’s just a shame that those principles are tax, tax and defend your taxes.”

Event Date: 9-01-1993
Event Description: Meeting with former President Ronald Reagan at the Rancho del Cielo outside of Santa Barbara, California. While the meeting is pleasant, Nixon notices that the former president seems lost and somewhat forgetful. Nancy Reagan explains to Nixon that her husband has been acting that way for some time. “He will be in my prayers,” Nixon responds.

Event Date: 9-11-1993
Event Description: Nixon marks his first wedding anniversary without his wife by working at a Los Angeles soup kitchen. “I find the best way to stave off the blues is to help other people get rid of theirs,” Nixon explains to the manager of the soup kitchen.

Event Date: 9-23-1993
Event Description: Professor Nixon travels to Saigon, Vietnam, to join in a celebration of the building of the first modern school in Vietnamese history. Nixon, who as the Ambassador to Vietnam has led Operation Apple to build the school, is the honored guest of the night.

Event Date: 9-25-1993
Event Description: Before a crowd of 200,000 current and former students of the first secondary school in Saigon, Professor Nixon is honored as a national hero in Vietnam. “I did not go about building schools to be honored as a hero,” Nixon explains in his address to the assembly, “I did what I did to make sure that children in Vietnam and all across Southeast Asia could have opportunities available to children in my country. I always saw myself as a lucky man since I was born and raised in the great and wealthy United States. As such a lucky man, I had to spread my luck to others, and I tired to spread education to Vietnam. Today, I see I was successful.”

Event Date: 9-30-1993
Event Description: Time Magazine publishes, “Nixon: A Man of the World.” The article examines the ever changing life of Professor Richard Nixon. “I never thought I would serve in Congress, state Attorney General, Ambassador to Vietnam, head up landmine removal and be an advisor to presidents,” Nixon tells the magazine, “In fact, my dad thought I’d make a fine grocery store owner, just like him.”

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 10-23-1993
Event Description: Riots against American troop deployments in Pakistan erupt in Baghdad, Iraq, and Damascus, Syria. “Sending troops into Pakistan is major mistake,” Professor Nixon tells World Affairs Magazine, “It will lead to a major shift of Muslim against the United States. Finding Al-Qaeda is the job of the Pakistani Army, not the United States.” 

Event Date: 10-30-1993
Event Description: U.S. soldiers discover three chief Al-Qaeda operatives outside of Turbat, Pakistan. Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, who had been behind terrorist attacks on the U.S. embassies in Lebanon and Egypt, is amongst the three captured. He is sent into holding in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, which is being used as the new American military prison for captured Al-Qaeda soldiers. 

Event Date: 11-02-1993
Event Description: President Bush announces from the Oval Office that U.S. military presence in Pakistan “Will be indefinite until all Al-Qaeda elements in the nation have been eradicated.” In response to this announcement riots begin again in cities throughout the Middle East.

Event Date: 11-12-1993
Event Description: After months of delay and debate, the Equality in the Military Act is defeated by a narrow margin, ending the hope of homosexuals openly serving in the military. “I can not see why so many are frightened by this prospect,” Nixon tells a gay rights newsletter, “After all, if they are willing to serve their country, can’t we be willing to let them serve in way they wish?”

Event Date: 11-23-1993
Event Description: Pakistani militias attack U.S. soldiers in the city of Pishin, Pakistan. The militias are not Al-Qaeda terrorists, but angry villagers who do not want the Western troops in their country. “We’ve opened a can of worms by entering Pakistan,” Nixon tells Senator Ed Zschau, “And in doing so we’ve made things for this ‘war on terror’ even more deadly.”

Event Date: 11-29-1993
Event Description: Former Congresswoman Barbara Boxer announces that she will challenge incumbent Governor Leo T. McCarthy in the Democratic Primary for Governor of California. Boxer attacks Governor McCarthy as unelectable, stating, “He is about as popular as a wet sweater on a cold night.”

Event Date: 12-02-1993
Event Description: More Pakistani militias attack the U.S. soldiers stationed in Pishin, Pakistan. The colonel leading the troops orders them to engage the militias, leading to a nine hour firefight which leaves six soldiers dead and twenty-nine wounded, One soldier, Lieutenant Hector Loredo, is the eldest son of Professor Nixon’s favorite student, now Los Angeles trial attorney Lorenzo Laredo.

Event Date: 12-08-1993
Event Description: In a speech to the Human Rights Campaign in San Francisco, California, Professor Nixon becomes the first public man to question the detainment policy at Guantanamo Bay. “These enemy combatants at Guantanamo Bay have not been read their rights, nor are they assured any,” Professor Nixon tells the meeting, “As an American, I am outraged we would stoop such tactics. We would never do that to a robber or thief in America, as we know that would be wrong. Why is not wrong when we refuse basic legal rights to Pakistanis?”

Event Date: 12-09-1993
Event Description: Conservative talk radio jumps on Professor Nixon’s Guantanamo Bay comments. “Once again Nixon shows he cares more for the enemy than for victory,” Rush Limbaugh tells his listeners, “The boys in Al-Qaeda ought to build him a statue.”

Event Date: 12-10-1993
Event Description: After internal polling shows him trailing Attorney General Lungren by a 71-22% margin and falling even farther behind in fundraising, Congressman Bill Brady ends his bid for California governor. “Now I know what to do,” Nixon tells himself while looking at a picture of his late wife.

Event Date: 12-13-1993
Event Description: After facing a year of losses, Professor Nixon shocks the political world by announcing he will seek the governorship of California in 1994. “I know I’ll be eighty-one before Election Day,” Nixon states in his announcement address, “But I know I have the heart to do one more thing for this great state. I can’t sit back and watch it get mismanaged, or turned over to a party that will manage it even worse. I seek the office of governor as an independent to show the world that not only can you teach an old dog new tricks; you might find the old tricks can still be quite useful.”

Event Date: 12-15-1993
Event Description: The first Gallup Poll released since Professor Nixon’s announcement for governor is encouraging for the campaign. The first poll shows Lungren at 36%, Nixon at 34% and McCarthy at 30%. The second poll, however, shows that Congresswoman Boxer could throw a monkey wrench into the works if she ousts McCarthy in the primary. That poll puts Boxer at 39%, Lungren at 37% and Nixon at 24%. “Let’s hope old Leo pulls it out,” Nixon tells campaign workers in Yorba Linda, California.

Event Date: 12-31-1993
Event Description: At a fundraiser, a heckler asks Professor Nixon how he can run for governor so soon after the death of his wife. “In a way,” Nixon tells the woman, “I am doing this in memory of my good wife and for all she stood for. I am running as a progressive independent, supporting homeless relief, protection for migrant workers and a government that cares for it’s most vulnerable. My wife firmly believed in those ideals, as do I.” The answer goes over well with the crowd and the media, but Nixon is in earnest. “Without Pat I couldn’t have done anything with my life,” Nixon tells Dean Barkley, his campaign manager, “I know she’s with me in this latest endeavor.”                             
     

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 1-02-1994
Event Description: The Los Angeles Times run a story entitled, “Nixon’s Monk Money.” The story accuses Professor Nixon of raising funds for the Perot 1992 Campaign at a monastery in Oakland, California. The proof is a campaign finance document showing the monastery as a donor to the campaign one day after Nixon spoke to the monks. “We can infer that Nixon cajoled them into giving to the campaign,” journalist Robert Hamilton writes, “After all, monks are not really the political type.” The article flies like a lead balloon with even Nixon opponents, like former Congresswoman Barbara Boxer, calling the story, “A ludicrous piece of junk journalism based off of assumptions and half-truths.” Professor Nixon himself laughs at the story, telling the press, “The reason I should be governor is that I can get money from men who took vows of poverty.”

Event Date: 1-14-1994
Event Description: In his sixth State of the Union Address, President Bush calls Iran, Syria and North Korea, “An Axis of Evil which threatens the peace and security of the world.” The statement “Axis of Evil” is seen as entirely too belligerent, especially against Iran, a nation which has offered helped to U.S. forces in the Middle East. “President Bush has grown fond of this type of language,” Professor Nixon tells PBS’ Bill Moyers in an interview, “It helps to rally his base, and in a midterm election this is quite important, but I do not think it does much to help thaw our icy relations with the nations of the Middle East.”

Event Date: 1-15-1994
Event Description: President Bush signs the Defense of Marriage Act, stopping same sex civil unions from receiving the same benefits as heterosexual marriages. “I don’t see why we need a law about this?” Nixon tells a rally in Oakland, California, “I don’t see why everyone in Congress is so scared of freedom, or equality or love for that matter.”

Event Date: 1-16-1994
Event Description: Ayatollah Ali Khamenei responds to President Bush’s statement of his nation being a member of an “Axis of Evil” by closing the borders of his nation to U.S. military traffic, which he had allowed previously.

Event Date: 1-29-1994
Event Description: In a speech at the University of California at Berkley, Professor Nixon states that as governor he will begin a, “Protected guest worker program to tackle to issue of undocumented immigration in out state.” Under Nixon’s guest worker plan, undocumented workers in California will have to register for a guest worker visa, work at a business for two years and then receive complete citizenship. To ensure that these guest workers are not being abused or exploited, every cooperating business would have to open itself to a government investigation every three months. Companies that cooperated with the guest worker program would be rewarded with tax incentives. “The states must lead the way on undocumented workers,” Nixon states at the end of his speech, “Because Washington seems more determined on keeping gays out of the military and marriage then on doing anything of value.”

Event Date: 2-05-1994
Event Description: Attorney General Dan Lungren weighs in on the debate over the guest worker program at a speech to the California Heritage Foundation in Bakersfield, California. “I think the best way to deal with illegal immigrants is to close the border,” Lungren tells the group, “If we just keep the border protected we will not have any illegals in out state. “ I would like to know,” Professor Nixon tells a rally in San Andreas, California, “What Mr. Lungren intends on doing with the more than two million undocumented immigrants already in our country, and specifically the 650,000 in California in particular. What is his plan going to do, make them disappear? May he have a ‘final solution’ for them?”

Event Date: 2-06-1994
Event Description: Nixon’s “final solution” to illegal immigration comment creates outrage from the Anti-Defamation League and the Lungren Campaign. While Nixon apologizes, stating he was simply trying to, “Show the ludicrously of Lungren’s immigration plan”, the crisis causes him to take a slight dip in the polls.

Event Date: 2-08-1994
Event Description: Secretary of State James Baker and representatives from Bosnia, the European Union and six nations of the former nation of Yugoslavia sign the Baltimore Accord, ending the crisis in Bosnia and Herzegovina. President Bush, with advice from Professor Nixon, put major emphasis on the ethnic genocide in Bosnia. The Baltimore Accord brings an end to crisis, and does it without the presence of NATO troops.

Event Date: 2-19-1994
Event Description: “Nixon in China” comes out in theatres, the first film made about celebrated intellectual and humanitarian Richard Nixon. The film is about Nixon’s (played by legendary stage actor Frank Langella) crises and victories in China in the year 1989. The film portrays his house arrest, work with the Free Tibet Movement, March on Tiananmen Square and, finally, the professor staring down a Chinese tank. The film receives fine reviews, but is not a blockbuster hit.

Event Date: 3-05-1994
Event Description: At a rally in San Francisco, California, Professor Nixon is challenged by the American Social Democracy Action Organization to denounce the free market capitalist system. “How can you, a man of justice and peace, support a market system that tramples on the rights of the working man?” one Social Democrat, a college senior, asks Nixon, “Where is the social and economic justice in the free market system?” “While I will admit there are those left behind by our economic system,” Nixon tells them, “I know that in socialist China many millions more were harmed. I fear government control of an economy because I have seen the power of an unchecked government.” Then, for effect, Nixon shows the student the deep gash in his arm caused by Chinese Communist soldiers in 1989. “You can say I know a great deal about big government,” Nixon tells the crowd, “I feel it everyday.”

Event Date: 3-12-1994
Event Description: In an attempt to gain popularity for the upcoming election, Governor McCarthy announces that he will support an increase in California’ minimum wage. “In a time of economic uncertainty,” Governor McCarthy tells the press, “It is vital that every Californian be given more to make ends meet.” This announcement helps the governor’s sagging poll numbers.

Event Date: 3-28-1994
Event Description: The Gallup Poll releases numbers for the California gubernatorial election, showing the Nixon boom may have gone bust. The poll puts Attorney General Lungren in first place with 39%, Governor McCarthy in second with 37% and Nixon in third with 24%. While this is still impressive for an independent, polls show that many Nixon supporters are breaking for Governor McCarthy as he appears to be the more viable liberal candidate in the race. “We need to find an issue which will reignite our campaign,” Dean Barkley tells Nixon, “If not, well, we might as well drop out.”

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 4-01-1994
Event Description: Northeastern California is ravaged by rolling blackouts, leaving three million people in the dark for three days. Governor McCarthy travels to the area to show solidarity, but has no response to the crisis. “I think I’ve found our issue,” Professor Nixon tells Barkley as they travel to the city of Eureka, California.

Event Date: 4-05-1994
Event Description: “In Latin ‘Eureka’ means ‘I have found it’,” Professor Nixon states at a rally in Eureka, California, “Over the last few days everyone in this part of the state can say they have found the biggest problem facing the state: a lack of energy.” Nixon outlines a plan to introduce serious energy reforms in the Golden State. “We need alternative energy to power our massive state,” Nixon states, “We are becoming as massive as a European nation, and that is just too big to rely on the U.S. energy grid. We need to re-power California!” “Re-Power California” sticks as the Nixon campaign slogan.

Event Date: 4-10-1994
Event Description: Senator Ed Zschau tells the Washington Post that Professor Nixon’s energy policy is, “The best one I have seen from any candidate for office this year, or any year for that matter.” The senator’s opinions are shared by the people of Northern California as Nixon’s poll numbers hit new highs in that conservative region of the state.

Event Date: 4-22-1994
Event Description: In an attempt to regain media attention, Attorney General Dan Lungren attacks Professor Nixon for, “Being a stalwart defender for those who break the laws of our state.” Lungren attacks Nixon for defending, “Murderers, rapists and traitors during his years on the bar.” The attacks are serious, leading Nixon to respond with a television advertisement. “I have recently been attacked for being a defense attorney,” Nixon tells the audience in the advertisement, “That is an attack I will admit. I did defend an African-American man falsely accused of breaking into a wealthy man’s house. Also, I did defend another man who would later be found innocent in a rape case shrouded in ethnic bigotry. I also defended innocent Japanese-Americans from a government trying to treat them as traitors. Apparently one candidate for governor thinks these are things to be ashamed of. If that is true, then he has no business serving in elected office and should never serve as governor.” The advertisement is powerful and well received, giving Nixon a much needed boost in the polls.

Event Date: 4-27-1994
Event Description: In a latter to President Bush, Professor Nixon urges the president to address the United Nations and request they do more to prevent the genocide in Rwanda. “I would to it myself,” Nixon writes, “But I do not have near the bully pulpit of a world leader.” 

Event Date: 4-29-1994
Event Description: President Bush addresses the United Nations, urging them to send more peacekeepers to Rwanda to “End the genocide of thousands of innocents.” The president, acting on a letter by Professor Nixon, will receive what he wants, as the Secretary General orders an additional 5,000 peacekeepers to protect the Tutsi tribes in Rwanda from anti-Tutsi rioters.

Event Date: 5-01-1994
Event Description: President Bush and Professor Nixon meet in Yorba Linda, California, to discuss whether or not American troops should be sent to Rwanda. “Not right now,” Nixon tells the president, “We should allow the UN to try its hand at the areas first, after all, its job is to keep peace, and that’s all we want in Rwanda. We do not want a war in inner Africa, because that would just become a meat grinder.” President Bush agrees that this is the best policy, telling the press, “With the advice of my good friend Richard Nixon and the Joint Chiefs of Staff our policy in Rwanda shall remain the same for the time being.” “I guess I’m now the joint chiefs,” Nixon gibes.

Event Date: 5-13-1994
Event Description: Senator Dan Quayle (Republican of Indiana), a potential candidate for president in 1996, declares at a fundraiser for Dan Lungren in Los Angeles that President Bush “Did some unneeded campaigning for Nixon earlier this month.” This statement is attacked as callous as the president was meeting with Nixon discussing how to deal with the Rwandan genocide.

Event Date: 5-25-1994
Event Description: In a primary debate between Governor McCarthy and Congresswoman Boxer, the congresswoman states that she is the, “Only Democrat who can blunt the Nixon effect,” due to her history as a progressive figure.

Event Date: 6-04-1994
Event Description: Primary day in California gives the expected results. In the Republican Primary, Attorney General Dan Lungren wins 83% of the vote defeating several unknowns and frequent candidates (like businessman Hector Romero, an eccentric Funeral Home director). On the Democratic side, Governor McCarthy defeats Congresswoman Barbara Boxer by a 53-47% margin, showing a divide in the party’s centrist and progressive wings. While Professor Nixon was not on a primary ballot, his supported candidate for Lieutenant Governor, Democratic State Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi, upsets incumbent Lieutenant Governor Gray Davis in the primary by a 3,000 vote margin. Davis’ upset defeat in the primary is attributed to the discovery of funds he rose from Palestinian businessmen which were not just illegal, but in a world of the War on Terror, but also political unintelligent.

Event Date: 6-12-1994
Event Description: Professor Nixon declares in a speech in Rosa Linda, California, that as governor he will, “Effectively rework the entire budget to make it work for, and not against, the people of the state.” Nixon declares that any budget that needs five new taxes to just keep from running up $50 million in debt, “Really should not be seen as a serious attempt to govern a state.” Nixon outlines a plan in which the new McCarthy taxes are repealed, but so are several pet projects and government bonuses for state employees. “If we are going to run a serious state,” Nixon declares, “We have to make serious decisions.”

Event Date: 6-28-1994
Event Description: Governor McCarthy, seeing that the state deficit will grow even larger due to his support for an increase in pay for state employees, declares that he may have to reverse on his plan to increase pay for state employees. “Sometimes things look good at the time,” the governor tells the state, “But in reality, they just aren’t.” “That could be the motto of this administration,” quips Nixon on a San Diego radio show.

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 7-04-1994
Event Description: “Declare your Independence, Re-Power California” declares a banner in Whittier, California. At a massive rally in his hometown, Professor Nixon and the Nixonites begin a statewide tour. “This will be a campaign of serious ideas,” Nixon declares in a speech to his hometown, “It will not be a muddle of talking points or party politics, but a true serious, independent campaign to change this state.”

Event Date: 7-11-1994
Event Description:  San Jose, California, is visited by the Nixonites, led by Jane Fonda and an army of long haired motorcycle enthusiast. “I feel like it’s the 1960s again,” one San Jose resident comments. Professor Nixon meets with the NAACP of San Jose, ensuring them that as governor, “My governor’s office will always be open, especially to those most vulnerable in society.”

Event Date: 7-23-1994
Event Description: In Fresno, California, Nixon declares, “A war on waste in government.” Holding a massive book, holding the California state budget, Nixon declares, “As governor I will make sure that lifting the budget doesn’t double as a pretty good cardio exercise.” “I have noticed,” writes Larry Sabato for the Los Angeles Times, “That in the last few days, Professor Nixon has been on an anti-government kick. I can not tell you why, as I have always found his appeal to be his progressivism.”

Event Date: 7-27-1994
Event Description: At Mount Whitney State Park, Professor Nixon attempts to regain footing as a progressive after more than two weeks as a budget slashing conservative. “Protecting the environment is never government waste, “Nixon states in a speech, “As governor, I will set aside at least ten more acres of untouched wilderness as protected state parks or wildlife reserves. Additionally, I will oppose offshore drilling as that only destroys a coastline in an attempt to continue our state’s addiction to fossil fuels.” This speech once again inspires progressives to Nixon’s cause, leading Sabato to name the Mount Whitney Address, “One of the most eloquent and politically savvy of Nixon’s career.”

Event Date: 8-01-1994
Event Description: The Gallup Poll shows that the Nixon campaign has not only revamped, but is gunning for the governor’s office. With several missteps by Governor McCarthy, as well as growing unemployment in the state, hurting his campaign, Nixon and Lungren are now in a tight battle. The poll shows Lungren with 38%, Nixon with 36% and McCarthy with 26%. “I am amazed,” Nixon tells Dean Barkley, “But I could actually end up as governor, and at eighty-one! I guess life does begin at eighty.”

Event Date: 8-09-1994
Event Description: While campaigning in San Bernardino, California, Professor Nixon faints due to heat stroke. While he survives, he is debilitated in bed for six days. This episode leaves many pundits wondering, “Is Nixon healthy enough to be governor?”

Event Date: 8-10-1994
Event Description: A Lungren for Governor Television Ad attacking McCarthy as the “tax man” and Nixon as the “old man” is pulled from the airwaves due to Nixon’s stroke. “I know bad taste,” Lungren tells his media advisor, “And to run that ad attacking Nixon as an old and sickly man would be very wrong considering what has happened.”

Event Date: 8-15-1994
Event Description: A Los Angeles Times poll shows that 67% of Californians are “wary about electing an eighty-one year old man governor.” The “Age Factor” has caused Nixon to fall several points in the latest Gallup Poll, so he decides to act. “If I don’t nip this age thing in the bud,” Nixon tells his staff, “Then It’ll be curtains for the campaign and me.”

Event Date: 8-19-1994
Event Description: Professor Nixon releases a routine physical he took at a Los Angeles physician’s office. “Professor Nixon is a perfectly healthy older man,” Dr. Wayne Glass, the physician who administrated the physical, states, “The professor could live to be one-hundred if he really wanted to.” While not all Californians stop commenting on the health of Nixon, enough do to defuse the age problem.

Event Date: 8-31-1994
Event Description: At a quiet ceremony, Professor Nixon and former Secretary of State Edmund Muskie meets with British Prime Minister Tony Blair and former IRA leader Michael McDowell to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the Dublin Accord and the end of war in Northern Ireland.

Event Date: 9-05-1994
Event Description: Attorney General Lungren, Governor McCarthy and Professor Nixon meet for the first gubernatorial debate, held at the University of California in Los Angeles. The debate, focusing on the economic mess in California, is easily won by Professor Nixon as he skillfully debunks his major party opponent’s arguments. When Lungren discusses how only tax cuts can end the budget deficit, Nixon responds, “Mr. Lungren, I understand your distaste for taxes, but how does reducing revenue flow lower a deficit?” To Governor McCarthy, Professor Nixon declares, “His administration has been based on one principal: create a tax, say it isn’t permanent and then raise it so that it has to stay there.” Nixon himself argues for a, “Serious policy for a serious budget.” “We need to incorporate sensible tax and spending cuts,” Nixon declares in his closing statement, “If we are ever going to see California’s budget ever balance itself again. We do not need a Balanced Budget Amendment, we simply need serious solutions.”

Event Date: 9-11-1994
Event Description: On his wedding anniversary, Professor Nixon does not campaign and instead watches “Casablanca” his wife’s favorite film. In his stead, Ross Perot and Ralph Nader, two well known independent politicians, stump in the city of Long Beach, California, with Perot telling the mayor of the town, “I guess I know why this place is called Long Beach. Do all of its politicians have to give forty minute long answers to three minute problems?”

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 10-03-1994
Event Description: The Dow Jones Industrial Average collapses 4,500-points, the worst one day performance since the 1970s. The collapse is brought on by reports from the Commerce Department that unemployment has grown by 3.3% since October 1993.

Event Date: 10-05-1994
Event Description: “We are entering a recession,” President Bush tells the nation from the Oval Office, “All economic indictors point to this, but we will go forward into it with our heads held high for we are Americans.” “That was one of the emptiest speeches I have ever heard,” Professor Nixon tells an economic town hall forum in Chico, California, “The statement that ‘we are America’ so we will not be harmed by a recession shows the reason why California needs an independent governor who wants serious programs and policies to deal with the coming economic problems in our state and nation.” Californians seem to agree with Nixon as the Gallup Poll reveals him in a neck-and-neck statistical tie with Attorney General Lungren.

Event Date: 10-10-1994
Event Description: Colonel Roméo Dallaire, the commander of UN troops in Rwanda, announces that the increased support for humanitarian forces in Rwanda have, “Stabilized the region and saved thousands.” Professor Nixon, at a rally in Santa Rosa, California, tells the world, “Thank God that someone cared about Rwanda.”

Event Date: 10-16-1994
Event Description: Ronald Waselweski, an unemployed U.S. marine veteran, attempts to drive an automobile filled with home-made explosive devices into the Presidential Convoy in Santa Cruz, California. While he is stopped and arrested, the episode shows, as Professor Nixon tells a Los Angeles news program, “That in these times some are embracing pretty strange ideas of how to deal with unemployment.”

Event Date: 10-18-1994
Event Description: The Gallup Poll surprises the nation by showing Professor Nixon leading in the race for governor. The poll puts Nixon at 42%, Lungren at 34% and McCarthy at 24%. “If you did not think God existed before today,” Nixon tells the press upon seeing the poll, “Well now you have your proof.”

Event Date: 10-23-1994
Event Description: In the final televised debate of the gubernatorial race, Professor Nixon asks Californians if they “Feel as if the two major parties are the best you deserve. Do you find the bickering, hate, arguing and lack of fresh ideas as the best that you, and your children, deserve? If you don’t think that, then I am your candidate.” The appeal makes sense to many Californians, especially with news that the sharply divided California Legislature once again failed to pass the 1995-1996 budget.

Event Date: 11-05-1994
Event description: In a letter to the nation, former President Ronald Reagan announces that he has Alzheimer’s disease and will end his public career. In the letter, he mentions Professor Nixon: “I wish to mention one man by name who has meant a great deal to my family, as well as out entire nation. Professor Richard M. Nixon has been a constant companion and friend of our family for forty years. He has told me time and time again during my early bouts with the disease to keep praying for God’s direction, and that he would pray that way too. While I may lose many thoughts, I hope to never forget the kindness he has shown my family.”

Event Date: 11-08-1994
Event Description: Professor Richard Milhous Nixon, a former Congressman, Attorney General and diplomat, is elected Governor of California in an upset. Nixon takes 43% of the vote to 35% for Attorney General Dan Lungren and 22% for Governor Leo McCarthy. “Tonight I stand on top of the mountain,” Nixon tells his supporters in Whittier, California, “And I stand here tonight because of you and the millions nationwide, and especially in California, who wanted to see a change in government and trusted an eighty-one year old man to bring it.”

Event Date: 11-11-1994
Event Description: Dean Barkley, Nixon’s campaign manager, returns to Minnesota to build up an independent movement in his home state. “As much as I would love to be your chief of staff,” Barkley tells Nixon, “I just couldn’t live without those Minnesota winters.”

Event Date: 11-19-1994
Event Description: Governor-elect Richard Nixon announces that his first act as governor will be, “To tackle the budget crisis once and for all.” In Sacramento, the budget crisis concludes as the minority Republicans finally concede and pass a budget with a $250 million budget deficit.

Event Date: 11-28-1994
Event Description: President Bush and Governor-elect Nixon meet in Whittier, California, where the president tells Nixon, “Now you’re an executive so you will see exactly what happens to ideals when you’re in charge of the whole show.” “You see I know I’m in charge,” Nixon tells Bush, “So the first things I keep are my ideals.”

Event Date: 12-30-1994
Event Description: Governor-elect Nixon arrives in Sacramento, California, to prepare for his inauguration in two days. “I face a budget deficit, massive unemployment, an open border, racial tensions, high taxes and a legislature without a sing independent in it,” Governor-elect Nixon states in an address to a ball in his honor, “Well, I guess we retired guys have to do something with our days.”

[Captain Chaos]

This has the makings of a Hall of Fame TL. Keep up the great work.

[Psychic Octopus]

Very good. It is the best Nixon TL I have ever read

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 1-01-1995
Event Description: Former Congressman, Attorney General, State Assemblyman, ambassador, Professor Richard Milhous Nixon is sworn-in as the 38th Governor of California. “Our state faces crises as big as mountains,” Governor Nixon tells the state in his inaugural address, “But no crisis is too big for us not to conquer together.”

Event Date: 1-10-1995
Event Description: Wasting no time, Governor Nixon addresses the California State Assembly, asking them to, “End the McCarthy taxes and banish them forever from our memories.” While Republicans (and some Democrats) cheer this statement, the Democratic leadership in the body refuses to budge. “Our budget is a mess,” Assembly Speaker Willie Brown tells the press, “Governor Nixon doesn’t know how bad the situation is. We need these taxes to simply keep our budget deficit below a billion dollars.”

Event Date: 1-11-1995
Event Description: In an interview with the Sacramento Bee, Governor Nixon attacks the Democratic leadership in the State Assembly for, “Refusing to meet me half way on the tax issue.” Nixon explains some strategic spending cuts, especially on wasteful highway spending, could save the state millions. “We do not need high taxes to stay out of the red,” Governor Nixon tells the paper, “We just need cooperation.”

Event Date: 1-15-1995
Event Description: State Assemblyman Charles Poochigan, a Republican, meets with Governor Nixon. The assemblyman and the governor work out a controversial plan to end the Car and Grocery Taxes yet not lose money. “The compromise is simple,” Assemblyman Poochigan tells the press, “State workers in California will have to take a pay cut and no new state jobs will be offered for two years. This plan is tough, the governor and I know that, but tough, adult decisions are needed if our state is ever going to figure out its fiscal house.”

Event Date: 1-19-1995
Event Description: Assembly Speaker Willie Brown finally responds to the Poochigan Bill, and his response is a resounding, “NO!” “It is ridiculous to cut pay in a recession,” Brown tells the Assembly, “Governor Nixon, as a learned man, should know this basic economic theory at least!” “I know that taxes also do not help in a recession,” Governor Nixon responds in a speech to the California Department of Commerce, “I also know that millions in debt also do not aid anyone in a recession, and Assemblyman Brown should know these basic tenants of economics as well.”

Event Date: 2-02-1995
Event Description: The American Federation of State and County Municipal Employees (AFSCME) attacks Governor Nixon’s plan to cut the pay of state employees. “State employees are already underpaid in California,” AFSCME California Representative Tom Taylor states, “Governor Nixon’s plan to cut their pay is destructive and a slap in the face to ever hardworking state employee across the nation.”

Event Date: 2-08-1995
Event Description: Governor Nixon, in an attempt to buy personal popularity to sell his controversial state employee pay plan, sets aside two-hundred acres of Redwood Forrest in Northern California as state protected land. The Sierra Club applauds the move, leading many Democrats from Northern California to meet with Nixon for photo opportunities. During these meetings, of course, Governor Nixon discusses the economic benefits of his plan.

Event Date: 2-12-1995
Event Description: Debate on the Poochigan Bill begins in the State Assembly, with more Democrats than expected backing the bill. “It all comes down to dollars making sense,” Assemblyman Joseph Baca, a Democrat, states, “We need to repeal some very unpopular taxes and rebuild the state budget. As much as I hate to admit it, everyone in state government will have to go with less, including all state workers.” While most Democrats do not share this belief, enough conservative Democrats from Northern California are willing to vote for the bill to pass it through a hostile assembly.

Event Date: 2-21-1995
Event Description: Governor Nixon speaks with State Senate Majority Leader John L. Burton, a very liberal Democrat, and State Senate Minority Leader Ross Johnson, an extremely conservative Republican, trying to find some common ground on the Poochigan Amendment, now being sponsored by Senator Joseph Dunn, a conservative Democrat, in the Senate. “No way will we issue a pay cut for state workers,” Senate Majority Leader Burton tells the governor, “That is an issue I will not compromise on.” “That’s the reason our state is in this mess, senator,” Governor Nixon tells, “A refusal to compromise.” Governor Nixon’s latest innovation to the Poochigan-Dunn Bill is a major cut in funding for highway renovation and new patrol cars for the State Patrol, a compromise between left and right he feels will, “Probably leave no one happy, but it will pass none then less.”

Event Date: 3-03-1995
Event Description: After three weeks of blistering debate, the Poochigan-Dunn Bill (renamed the California Budget Reform Act of 1995) passes by a narrow margin in the Senate, once again with heavy support from conservative Northern Californian Democrats. “This bill is not the beginning of the end of the budget crisis,” Governor Nixon tells the state as he signs the bill, “However; I think this marks the end of the beginning.”

Event Date: 3-11-1995
Event Description: A report by the San Diego Post shows a study that the pay cut for state employees will not really even affect their income over the course of two years. “Adding on to their base income the befits of state health and dental insurance, as well as pensions,” the paper reports, “The slight pay cut introduced through the law will have no long term effect on the financial status of state employees.”

Event Date: 3-24-1995
Event Description: Governor Nixon vetoes the Energy Market De-Regulation Act, which would have stopped nearly all state oversight on energy producers in California. “This bill is a blackout waiting to happen,” Governor Nixon states as he vetoes the bill. The veto not be overturned by the State Senate.

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 4-05-1995
Event Description: Three Mexican migrants are killed by border militiamen as they try to cross the border from Los Algodones, Baja California to Andrade, California. The border militiamen, four former marines and now employees at a local foundry, are arrested and a national outcry of opposition and support for them begins.

Event Date: 4-06-1995
Event Description: “I do not support vigilantism on the border,” Governor Nixon tells the nation in an address from the governor’s office, “No one is above the law, or below it. The four men who killed the three Mexican migrants are not heroes, but dangerous vigilantes who will be tried for first degree murder, as they should be.”

Event Date: 4-10-1995
Event Description: The last six days have been a firestorm of conservative attacks on Governor Nixon with Rush Limbaugh, the governor’s old foil, leading the way. “Nixon, the old cook, has shown he supports a broken border policy in his state,” Limbaugh states, “To add insult to injury, he wants to arrest those who dare try to protect their unprotected border. Nixon is a moron, plain and simple.”

Event Date: 4-19-1995
Event Description: Senator Lois Cardonzo, a Democrat, introduces the Order at the Border Act, outlawing independent militias on the border. The bill receives mixed support, with most Democrats favoring the bill and most Republicans opposing it. However, Governor Nixon is not frightened. “I’ve read so many books,” Governor Nixon tells his secretary, “I have learned how to read situations quite well.”

Event Date: 4-30-1995
Event Description: Governor Nixon travels to Washington, D.C., for the second governor’s meeting of 1995. Governor Angus King (Independent of Maine) and Nixon, the only two independent governors in the country, both meet with the Republican Governor’s Caucus when they break into committee, with Nixon telling the GOP governors, “For some reason I try to be bi-partisan, and that works: now both parties hate me.”

Event Date: 5-05-1995
Event Description: The Order at the Border Act passes by a wide margin in the California State Senate, which is dominated by the Democratic Party. The State Assembly, which is much closer, will prove to be a much bigger obstacle for Governor Nixon to overtake.

Event Date: 5-09-1995
Event Description: Republican Assembly Minority Leader Rod Pacheco announces that he expects all members of his caucus to, “Oppose Governor Nixon’s anti-border sanity bill.” This call, however, is ignored by Assemblyman Abel Maldonado, a moderate Republican from Santa Maria, who stands with Governor Nixon. “I don’t see rogue militias as a ‘sane’ border protection method,” Assemblyman Maldonado tells the press.

Event Date: 5-16-1995
Event Description: Once again, Governor Nixon is able to celebrate a victory as the Order at the Border Act passes the State Assembly by a wider than expected margin. While very conservative Republicans voted against the bill, they proved too small a number to stop the law. “I sign this act for law and for civilization,” Governor Nixon states as he signs the bill, “Now let’s see if we can have reasonable border protections.”

Event Date: 5-19-1995
Event Description: In a controversial move, Governor Nixon commutes the death sentences of seven former members of the violent gang the Crips. Among them is Tookie Williams, who is serving a life sentence for the Brookhaven Motel murders. Williams, since his conviction in 1981, has turned his life around due to Richard Nixon’s books about redemption. Since 1981, Williams has written two books about the error of gang life and has studied to become a priest in prison Christian outreach. “I feel that Mr. Williams has shown his repentant side,” Governor Nixon tells the state as he commutes his sentence, “I now want him to return to the streets of Los Angeles, but this time as a bringer of peace and goodwill.”

Event Date: 5-22-1995
Event Description: The California Brotherhood of Law Enforcement Officials release a statement condemning Governor Nixon for the pardon of Samuel “Tookie” Williams and six other former Crips gang members. “These thugs have killed police officers and other innocent people,” the statement reads, “Governor Nixon has shown a callous and anti-law enforcement view by granting these pardons.” “I believe in second chances,” Governor Nixon tells the press, “I’m a Quaker, I was raised that way. I do not approve of the lawlessness of gangs, but I also know that men can be lead back on the narrow way if given the chance to do so.”

Event Date: 6-06-1995
Event Description: Following a speech in Death Valley dedicating a monument, Governor Nixon collapses from exhaustion in his hotel room. While he recovers immediately, once again the question is asked, this time by a local radio host, “Is our eighty-two year old governor too unhealthy for his job?” Nixon’s response, “Probably, but that never stopped me before.”

Event Date: 6-11-1995
Event Description: Fully recovered from his collapse, Governor Nixon announces his plan to seek a guest worker program for California.

Event Date: 6-14-1995
Event Description: State Senator Richard Brady, a conservative Republican, signs on to Governor Nixon’s guest worker program for undocumented immigrants in California. The program, which will be offered to all licensed businesses in California, will offer a pathway to citizenship for all undocumented immigrants if they work at a business for two years. The plan is applauded by most legislators, but there are voices of opposition. “This bill seems to me as a way to give big business and agricultural free workers,” State Assemblyman Mike Honda tells the assembly, “I hope that major labor concessions will be given in this bill. If they are, this bill will pass without a problem.”

Event Date: 6-29-1995
Event Description: Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo and Governor Nixon meet in Mexico City to discuss immigration issues. President Zedillo endorses Nixon’s guest worker program, calling it, “The first positive work for immigration reform in the history of our two nations.”

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 7-01-1995
Event Description: The Gallup Poll gives Nixon a pleasant surprise. The poll shows Governor Nixon with a 67% approval rating, surprising both his supporters and detractors. “Every once and a while I can do something right,” Nixon tells the San Francisco Chronicle in an interview, “And I guess that’s enough for most Californians.”

Event Date: 7-08-1995
Event Description: The California State Senate passes the Guest Worker Act, with several added provisions. One of them is the appointment of a board of supervisors who will visit the companies volunteering to host guest workers to check the conditions of their workplaces. However, business also wins a concession as they are given major tax cuts and corporate welfare bonuses for joining the program. “I hate to give that much away,” Governor Nixon tells his secretary, “But you can’t make a businessman who makes Genghis Khan look liberal get a heart without some cash in return.”

Event Date: 7-15-1995
Event Description: State Assemblyman Cruz Bustamante, a Democrat, introduces the Gust Worker Act to the California State Assembly. While Governor Nixon’s bill is popular in California, many in the nation’s capital are wary of the precedent. “It is wrong for a governor to decide immigration policy,” Senator Carl Levin (Democrat of Michigan) tells the chamber from the Senate floor, “Governor Nixon is over stepping his power as a governor by passing multi-national immigration law.”

Event Date: 7-16-1995
Event Description: Governor Nixon responds to Senator Levin’s comments in an interview with Bill Maher on PBS. “If Washington ever did anything to address immigration I would not have to pass this bill,” Governor Nixon tells Maher, “However, they are too busy goofing around with petty budget disputes ‘defending’ marriage to do anything of value.”

Event Date: 7-21-1995
Event Description: President Bush endorsees the California Guest Worker Program, commenting, “I think that Border States need to have a close relationship with Mexico, otherwise we will never figure out how to bring order to the Southern border.”

Event Date: 7-30-1995
Event Description: The California State Assembly passes the Guest Worker Act, with Governor Nixon signing it on the same day.

Event Date: 8-01-1995
Event Description: The first Gallup Polls for the 1996 presidential campaign are released. On the GOP side Vice-President Larry Pressler and Ambassador Pete Wilson lead the pack, with Pressler taking 23% and Wilson taking 20%, 12% for Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole, 9% for author and former Reagan speechwriter Pat Buchanan and 8% for magazine editor Steve Forbes. There are 28% undecided, making the poll fairly worthless. The Democratic side shows Senator Al Gore (Democrat of Tennessee) and former Governor Bill Clinton (Democrat of Arkansas) in a tight race. The poll shows Gore with 24%, Clinton with 21%, Senator Joseph Biden with 10%, Governor Zell Miller with 9%, Congressman Richard Gephardt with 7% and Senator Bill Bradley (not a declared candidate) with 4%. Like the GOP poll, a high number of undecided make the poll nearly worthless. The most interesting part of the poll shows that 55% of Americans polled would like to see Governor Nixon run for president.

Event Date: 8-05-1995
Event Description: “I will not be a candidate for president in 1996,” Governor Nixon tells the press, “The idea that a man of my age would campaign for president could be considered cruel and unusual punishment.” The governor, however, endorses Ambassador Pete Wilson for president, stating that Wilson “Is the only Republican who can win the independents the Republican Party needs to hold the Oval Office.”

Event Date: 8-11-1995
Event Description: Governor Nixon vetoes the California English Only Act, narrowly passed by the state legislature. Under the bill all public offices and buildings would be required to only have English language signs. “This bill does not make any sense,” Governor Nixon states in his veto message, “If we are inviting immigrants into our state through a guest worker program, why would we make it impossible for them to read signs?”

Event Date: 8-20-1995
Event Description: President Bush announces that Al-Qaeda in Pakistan, “Have been neutralized and captured.” This statement is seen to be true as terrorist attacks on U.S. embassies in the Middle East have ended and violence in Pakistan has been reduced to only a few sporadic assaults over the past few months.

Event Date: 8-22-1995
Event Description: General Norman Schwarzkopf announces that all U.S. troops in Afghanistan will be withdrawn by October 1997, with more than 75% of troops being withdrawn by the end of the year.

Event Date: 8-29-1995
Event Description: Governor Nixon causes a stir when he signs an executive order, “Urging all state college campuses to strive for dry campus status.” “Drinking is an abomination and a waste of time,” Governor Nixon, an ardent dry, tells the press, “I want our state campuses to be dry and industrious, and I feel all college deans should feel that way.” This order is met with protests on campus by students, complete with effigies of Governor Nixon made out of beer cans.

Event Date: 9-04-1995
Event Description: The economy continues its downward spiral as the Commerce Department announces that unemployment will hit 9% in January 1996. In California, Governor Nixon faces the crisis of fighting a state unemployment rate of almost 10%.

Event Date: 9-11-1995
Event Description: On his wedding anniversary day, Governor Nixon signs the California Dream Act. The Dream Program is an increase in state college loans, paid for by money saved by cuts in government employee pay and wasteful road and state trooper spending. “It is the dream of all Americans to see their children graduate from college,” Governor Nixon tells the state as he signs the bill, “This law will assure even the poorest of Californian families that there children will experience that day of pride: college graduation.”

Event Date: 9-28-1995
Event Description: Ambassador Pete Wilson announces his candidacy for president, urging, and “A new understanding in America”Governor Nixon stands beside Wilson at his speech in San Diego, California, telling attendees, “I saw the next President of the United States today.”