Obama, Nixon and a tough first year...
There's nothing quite like the expectation and hope that comes with the inauguration of a new US president. President-elect Obama's from Philadelphia to Washington is likely to increase that expectation with large crowds predicted to throng the route. Indeed, every itself has been booked for months. The city is gearing up for quite a party.
Obama will be well aware that the party may not last and that's something Democrats like Jennifer Granholm, Governor of Michigan are fully aware of too.
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Obama's election-winning mantra was one of "change" and he's continued that theme in recent speeches, not surprisingly putting his plans for the lurching centre stage. Economic decisions will be key in his first year.
40 years ago another man assumed the mantle of US president in similar circumstances. Richard Nixon was inaugurated on 20 January 1969 and also inherited a country embittered by an unpopular overseas war, a country deeply divided economically and racially.
Not that I'm trying to make an ideological link between the two men. Different political persuasions and a vastly changed world make that a nonsense. Obama comes to office on a wave of genuine , something Nixon never really enjoyed. He was seen as a safe candidate advocating law and order, acceptable to both wings of his party and voted in by a country hungry for stability after a turbulent year.
Despite that, Panorama was of course as interested in Nixon then as it is in Obama, who's been the subject of three films in less than two years:
Well we know the answer to that now.
And our latest programme, which examines some of the key challenges Obama will face.
In fact Panorama's appraisal of Nixon's first year in office, broadcast on 26 January 1970 saw Robert MacNeil note that Nixon "faces more and graver problems than any president before him". The same sentiment could be applied to Obama today. There's an archive clip from that show on Nixon below:
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MacNeil's take on Nixon's relationship with the media is pretty fascinating too. What MacNeil calls "Nixon incorporated" we would probably call the start of modern "spin". The sequence also hints at the sinister manipulation by men "in dark suits with short haircuts" which would prove to be part of Nixon's inescapable legacy, .
But that scandal often clouds the fact that he proved popular enough to win a second term. Panorama caught up with Nixon again on the eve of his re-election in November 1972 and found Julian Pettifer posing the question of "how is it that Tricky Dicky, that two-time loser, finds himself in this apparently commanding position?". Pettifer's report from the Nixon-supporting town of Alliance, Ohio goes some way to explaining why - middle America was enjoying a steady hand in charge. There's an excerpt from that film below:
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Pettifer's report does however highlight concerns that would soon prove to be Nixon's downfall when he points out almost "daily accusations of impropriety" from his political opponents.
And next week while Obama adorns millions of TV screens, a portrayal of a certain Richard Milhous Nixon will be on the across the UK.
Such has been the meteoric rise and historic significance of Barack Obama that it is only a matter of time before he's the subject of a Hollywood biopic, like the outgoing president, who got the cinematic treatment last year.
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