Jonathan Alter of Newsweek uses that term to describe Sarah Palin, comparing her speech Friday to the Checkers speech:

“Nixon famously said, “I’m not a quitter” (before quitting). Palin said people who “plod along” on “the worthless path” have taken “the quitters way out.” She actually quit while attacking quitters. For a certain kind of numbskull, that counts as smooth. Now she’s free to be feted by conservatives in every state. She didn’t really quit, you see. She just quit holding back in her search for liberal prey.”

Nixon, you may recall, lost the presidency to JFK in 1960, then lost the California governor’s race to Edmund Brown in 1962, and announced his retirement from politics. Despite any negative connotations, being “the Nixon of our times” would indicate a high probability of a comeback.

Alter’s article

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