It's no Watergate

update 1: read related

update 2: The Virginian - and his commentors - go farther (read it all):

(edited)

(on the plus side,) Richard Nixon:

• ended the Vietnam war,
• ended the draft,
• started arms talks with the USSR,
• pried the Communist USSR-China alliance apart,
• opened China,
• began the USA's support for the dissidents inside the USSR,
• (aided) Israel during the Yom Kippur war,
• got Egypt to break from the USSR and expel the Soviet military,
• ensured NASA could land a man on the moon,
• integrated the officers' clubs in the military,
• signed the first clean air/clean water act,
• did not plot the Watergate break-in,
• appointed William Rehnquist,
• (and) The Nixon IRS never actually went after Nixon's enemies.

A lot of pundits on both sides are telling people that (x) incident under the Obama administration should not be compared to Watergate - where x could equal anything below:

During the IRS incident, the Obama administration and Democrats in Congress directed the IRS to deliberately and illegally delay the applications of conservative (and not liberal) non-profit groups.

During the Benghazi incident, the Obama administration:

• directed the military to not aid or rescue its representatives under attack,
• fabricated and actively spread lies to deflect blame from Islamists,
• refused for months to release any information about the coverup,
• blamed lower-level operatives for any mistakes, and
• threatened witnesses who might contradict the Obama administration's lies.

During the AP spying incident, the Obama administration directed the Justice Department to deliberately spy (in an illegal, i.e. warrantless, manner) on the contacts of a press organization.

The Obama administration has knowingly appointed numerous tax cheats to high office, while directing the IRS to harass his opponent's contributors.

During the Solyndra incident, the Obama administration:

• wasted a half-billion dollars on a failing company, and
• made sure his donors benefited from its bankruptcy.

The Obama administration's Eric Holder has perverted justice by:

• actively preventing Arizona and other states from securing our border with Mexico,
• dismissing the charges in the Black Panther Party voter intimidation case solely for racial considerations,
• refusing to uphold the Defense of Marriage Act,
• giving automatic weapons to Mexican druglords while preventing law-abiding Americans from owning those same weapons.

Under ObamaCare, the Obama administration and Democrats in Congress have:

• strong-armed Congress into passing the bill without reading it,
• misled the American public about its costs, benefits, and legality, and dismissed their legitimate concerns,
• actively harassed its most vocal opponents, and
• piled on trillions of dollars of debt, while asking for the unconstrained right to create more debt.

And on countless occasions, the Obama administration has lied to Congress while under oath.

Now to be fair, let's include the facts about the Watergate scandal: Nixon operatives drew up an 'enemies list', then carried out two burglaries. Then Nixon and several members of his administration engaged in illegal wiretapping, destroyed a few documents, and perjured themselves before Congress.

Conclusion: The pundits are correct that it is wrong to compare Nixon to Obama - but only because it's so insulting to Nixon.