Forty years ago today, on June 17, 1972, James McCord, Bernard Barker, Frank Sturgis, Virgilio Gonzales, and Eugenio Martinez broke into Democratic Campaign Headquarters at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, DC. The five were hired by the now infamous "White House Plumbers," a group formed in 1971 to "plug leaks in the Nixon Administration." The Watergate burglary would result in the resignation of President Nixon, plunge the nation into a decade long economic downturn, and forever change the image of the presidency both at home and abroad. The ripple effects were so great that the word "gate" has now become a suffix attached to any highly visible scandal. (Trooper-gate, Contra-gate, and Nanny-gate are popular examples.) Google lists 122 separate scandals across multiple genres that have acquired the "gate" suffix.
The pin shown in today's photo is an authentic 1972 Nixon reelection campaign pin. It's one of the few campaign slogans to bear his name since, for his reelection, Nixon ran simply as "The President." The more common slogan was just "Reelect The President," a subtle acknowledgement by Nixon that he personally held little respect in the nation, but the office of the President was held in high regard. (His nickname "Tricky Dick" long predated the Watergate scandal.) In any case, I thought the fortieth anniversary of Watergate would be a good opportunity to bring out my 1972 Nixon button for the Photo a Day challenge.
Post processing was limited to a detail light filter in Topaz Adjust followed by a slight levels adjustment.
