After Richard Nixon lost the 1960 presidential election to John F. Kennedy and the California governor’s race two years later (when he uttered the immortal line to the media, “You don’t have Nixon to kick around anymore”) the former vice president knew he must reinvent himself to run for president again in 1968.

Thus was born “the new Nixon,” an attempt to transform himself from “the old Nixon,” whom the public didn’t like, into a warmer, softer, more approachable person. As it turned out, the “new Nixon” was simply the “old Nixon” with a new coat of political paint.