Former Richard Nixon senior advisor Pat Buchanan joined "Riley & Scot" to talk about his new book, "The Greatest Comeback," about Nixon's political revival after losing the 1962 California gubernatorial election. He used an extensive collection of personal notes and replies written by Nixon himself to piece together the stories.

First, I had to sat "thank you" for a gift from 17 years ago. The story is told in the interview below, but briefly: when a senior in high school one of our assignments in our creative writing class was to pen a letter to a famous person and use our power of persuasion to ask for an autographed picture in return. I chose to write to Pat Buchanan for reasons I specifically cannot remember. But I do know I had followed his campaigns closely in 1992 and 1996 and already had read a couple of his books, including the terrific "Right From the Beginning". Pat was kind enough to respond with an autographed pic for me and also one for my liberal history teacher. Just as I had requested! Here's my pic:

Scot Bertram, Townsquare Media
Scot Bertram, Townsquare Media
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Now to the book. Nixon had sworn off politics after 1962 but was convinced to try to run for President again in 1968. Not to ruin the end of the book, but he was successful.

Some commentators have opined that President Obama is enjoying the presidency that Nixon wished he had, in terms of the breadth and scope of executive power. But Buchanan says some of that is the GOP's own fault:

The Congress of the United States has got the power of the purse and various other powers to check an executive. I fault the Republican Congress. They couldn't even defund Obamacare. They tried and failed...Some of the whining on the part of the Congress and the Republicans I find an excuse to cover up why they're not doing what they should be doing.

Here's our full interview with the great Pat Buchanan, in which talk about "The Greatest Comeback" and also discuss the evolving situation in Ukraine and Israel:

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