ABSTRACT
Richard Nixon did not appear presidential. He was shy, unsure of his roots, bland, and unformed in his personality and culture. He compensated for his lack of personal center with forced shows of ebullience and toughness. He tried to emulate the heroic, simple, and forceful good guy of his native West. In public he presented such a carefully cultivated personality that his most sincere protestations often rang false. The smile was too forced, the humor too heavy-handed, the sentiments too maudlin, and the claims to highest morality too transparently false. He was obsessed with public relations, far more than most other modern presidents, few of whom have been shrinking violets. He always attributed defeats to the better public relations work of his opponents, never to their substance.
