Why Nixon's pardon was a great mistake

Woodward and Bernstein: 40 years after Watergate, Nixon was far worse than we thought

I felt strongly at the time that Nixon's pardon, (broadly praised by politicians and pundits), was a great mistake. In the absence of the full incriminating details, Nixon's observable low character alone showed that he was undeserving of leniency. The nation, however, would be denied the full accounting that it did deserve. The precedent being set constituted a moral hazard not unlike that which even now protects criminal bankers and GWoT torturers. Every failure to prosecute the criminal acts of the powerful and politically connected is actually a crime against the public, an assault upon the rule of law and another slip further into corruption and despotism.