“So, for example, in many ways, Richard Nixon was the last Liberal President (laughs from the audience). (Maintaining a serious face) That’s literally true, if you look at his policies.”- Noam Chomsky
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Kids Like You & Me (KLYAM) 
Look at it in the right way, and Chomsky ain’t joking. As The Daily Show observed, in the aftermath of the B.P. spill….every president from Nixon to Obama has promised to wean America off its dependence on oil, and Nixon, of all people, was the one who made the most progress toward doing so. The EPA, anyone? Nixon wasn’t that bad a president, once you forget about that one thing toward the end.
In terms of context, you are precisely right, that’s why I posted this. Alas, many probably think that’s a joke. I don’t care that much about Nixon getting the credit as a “liberal,” but I’d rather people get the part that all the other prez since him weren’t “liberal” including Obama, whom people think is too liberal or even “socialist” or dare I say “communist”- ridiculous. But, either way Nixon, like his fellow prez, was a mass murdering criminal and people focus way too much on Watergate, which compared to his other crimes, was nothing. Same goes with Bill Clinton (to a far greater extent) the way the public/media keyed in on the Oral Office, excuse me, Oval Office incident when he was bombing countries and so forth. I tend to think the latter is far worse, but what do I know…
Nixon was also a committed Keynesian who offended Milton Friedman who cried Judas. He even instituted wage and price controls! These things are unthinkable now. Jimmy Carter was not a liberal president at all, the Second Cold War really got going under his rule though it was under Reagan that it went to a fever pitch. It was in fact the Halloween Massacre under the Ford Administration that started things there.