School of Public Affairs professor Donald Fulsom said during a "Professors Are People, Too" event Thursday night that when he was a White House correspondent in the early 1970s, he was the first person to connect the 1972 break-in at the Democratic National Committee's headquarters in the Watergate complex to Richard Nixon's presidential re-election campaign.
"It was the only time I was faster than Woodward and Bernstein," he said. Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein were The Washington Post reporters who were largely responsible for exposing the Watergate scandal.
Fulsom said his experience as a reporter during the scandal was one of his most memorable experiences.
"It was pretty scary, but it was very exciting and terribly interesting," he said.
Fulsom said that while Nixon had many good foreign policy ideas, such as his 1972 trip to China, he also had a darker side that he showed during the Watergate scandal.
"Nixon was probably our worst president," he said.
Fulsom said he was a White House correspondent during several periods of time, including time during the John F. Kennedy, Nixon and Bill Clinton administrations.
He wrote for The Washington Post and the Chicago Tribune, and served as a White House correspondent during Ronald Reagan's presidency for Voice Of America, a government-funded radio news network, according to their Web site.
Fulsom said the 2008 political race has been one of the dirtiest he has ever seen because of attacks from "right-wing bloggers" and others, including people who have commented about Barack Obama's links to 1960s anti-war activist Bill Ayers.
"It shouldn't get this slimy," Fulsom said.
He said he hopes the next administration will treat the media differently than President Bush's administration has.
"I hope there can be a better relationship between the press and the president," Fulsom said.
Nixon had connections to Jack Ruby, the man who killed Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, Fulsom said.
"Nixon may have had some foreknowledge of it," he said. Fulsom did not say he believed Nixon was directly involved in the incident.
Kennedy Political Union Director Bill DeBaun said that he was pleased with the turnout at the event, which KPU and ATV co-sponsored.
"I found Professor Fulsom to be a riveting individual," DeBaun said in an e-mail. "If we put even 20 people in touch with an individual or program that they truly care about, I count that as a real success."
Fulsom said he is not teaching any classes this semester, but intends to teach a class called "Watergate: A Constitutional Crisis" next fall.
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