They wanted to run against McGovern-Look who they're running against!

[Dread Pirate Roberts]

There's a line in "All The President's Men" when Deep Throat is explaining the point of Nixon's dirty tricks. He tells Woodward, "they wanted to run against McGovern, look who they're running against!". It was all about trying to remove an electoral threat to Nixon and tilt the playing field in his favor. On January 31, 1972, just weeks before the New Hampshire primary, Edumund Muskie sure looked like a threat to Nixon:

A Presidential election involving President Nixon, Senator Edmund S. Muskie and Gov. George C. Wallace, if conducted this month, would have been almost a dead heat between the President and the Senator, the Gallup Poll reported yesterday.

President Nixon would have captured 43 per cent of the vote, compared to Senator Muskie's 42 per cent, according to the poll. Twelve per cent of the vote would have gone to the Alabama Governor.

The survey results indicate little overall change since the last survey late November, but Senator Muskie has registered a seven‐point increase since early October.

The Maine Senator has increased his support among Republicans in the poll from 6 per cent in October to 13 per cent. His support by Democrats over 30 years old has grown, and his support among Democrats under 30 has remained unchanged since October.

https://www.nytimes.com/1972/01/31/archives/nixon-and-muskie-nearly-even-at-43-and-42-in-gallup-poll.html

Then came the "Canuck Letter", a fabricated letter that came from the imagination of one of Nixon's "ratfuckers", Donald Sigretti.

Law enforcement sources said that probably the best example of the sabotage was the fabrication by a White House aide -- of a celebrated letter to the editor alleging that Sen. Edmund S. Muskie (D-Maine) condoned a racial slur on Americans of French-Canadian descent as "Canucks."

The letter was published in the Manchester Union Leader Feb 24, less than two weeks before the New Hampshire primary. It in part triggered Muskie's politically damaging "crying speech" in front of the newspaper's office.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/watergate/articles/101072-1.htm

Two weeks after that poll came out, Muskie was history and Nixon was on his way to a landslide victory against McGovern.

Now fast-forward to current times. Every poll had Biden beating Trump. Biden was a clear threat to Trump's electoral fortunes. Enter the bogus investigation of the Bidens that has led us to where we are today.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

[DonaldsRump]

1. That's what this is all about

Trump et al are trying to determine the most easily beatable candidate.

FOLKS: WE CANNOT FALL FOR THEIR TRICKS/CRIMES TO DIVIDE US.

[scheming daemons]

2. And Trump wants to run against Bernie or Liz

Whether he is correct to think that way remains to be seen.

[Dread Pirate Roberts]

5. Maybe its the Russians who want him to run against Bernie or Liz?

No matter, it sure seems like a similar attempt to abuse the powers at hand to destroy any threats. I'm sure it appeals to Trump's "Roy Cohen" instincts.

[tinrobot]

6. Russian bots supported Bernie in 2016

Not sure if that's because they were so against Hillary or if they actually supported him.

[Laxman]

3. Is The Hand Of Roger Stone....

or any of the other surviving Nixonites in this? It definitely smacks of Trump trying to determine his opponent. It's just that Trump is way more corrupt than even Nixon. Very similar abuses of power. I'm surprised some talking head on T.V. didn't make this comparison. Pretty good historical analogy.

[Dread Pirate Roberts]

7. Others have seen similarities before

From the LA Times back in October

Nixon tried to tamper with the 1972 election when he was seeking a second term. First he sent undercover agents to sabotage the campaign of Sen. Edmund S. Muskie of Maine, the Democrats’ early front-runner.

Then Nixon’s ham-fisted “plumbers” broke into a Democratic Party office in Washington’s Watergate complex to plant listening devices, only to be thwarted by a security guard. A two-year-long whodunit revealed numerous other crimes. Nixon quit after Senate Republicans warned him he’d be ousted from office in an impeachment trial.

https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2019-10-13/trump-scandal-beginning-to-smell-a-lot-like-watergate

and the Roger Stone connection was looked at in Slate, but focusing on Nixon's use of Vietnam in 1968 to influence the election-but still treasonous nonetheless.

Nixon, then a former vice president, had the same goal as Trump: To undermine a leading opponent, in that instance Vice President Hubert Humphrey, who was the Democratic nominee in the chaotic election of 1968. In a nation already traumatized by the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Humphrey was a compromise candidate tarnished by his association with Lyndon Johnson’s deeply unpopular war in Southeast Asia. Nixon correctly perceived that as a weakness and exploited it.

Trump appears to have pursued similar dirty tricks against former Vice President Joe Biden, whom polls have suggested would defeat Trump easily as a potential Democratic nominee next year. In fairness, why wouldn’t Trump pursue such tactics? They worked against Hillary Clinton in 2016, who was perceived by many voters as untrustworthy and plagued by scandal, based largely on false rumors, leaked documents and innuendo. At least until now, Trump has suffered no serious consequences for his 2016 campaign, just as Nixon didn't in 1968.

https://www.salon.com/2019/09/28/nixons-the-one-trumps-misuse-of-foreign-policy-echoes-tricky-dicks-vietnam-meddling-in-1968/

[Dem4Life1102]

4. David Broder lied about Muskie crying

Never forget that.

[GeorgeGist]

8. Hopefully this time ...

the Ratfuckers (aka Republicans) have overplayed their hand.