When George Bush first took office in 2000, no one would have ever have thought to compare him to Richard Nixon. The affable dope that is George Bush seemed as far from the deviant miscreant that Nixon was as you could possibly get. However, comparisons between the two are becoming easier and easier to draw. Today is the anniversary of Nixon’s birth, making today the logical day to explore the differences and similarities between them.

The birthchart of Richard Nixon shows a man who was intensely goal-oriented and introverted, with a stellium (3 planets) in Capricorn (the achiever) in the 4th house of the interior world. Nixon’s Mars (aggressive instinct) is on the true cusp between Sagittarius and Capricorn, making him more of a Capricorn Mars which has great determination and force (Mars) of will (Capricorn). That Mars is opposed by Pluto indicating that he was constantly being forced to adapt and change (Pluto), usually against his will (Mars). With an Aquarius moon showing a tendency to be detached (Aquarius) emotionally (Moon), he didn’t really care much whether or not people liked him. For him it was all about the work.

Many people (from John Dean to Hunter Thompson) are now saying that Bush makes Nixon looks like a liberal president. Nixon inherited a war and tried to win it; Bush created a war that is unwinnable. Nixon was obsessed with secrecy and presidential power; Bush took an American tragedy and manipulated it to attain that same level of secrecy. Nixon signed the National Environmental Policy Act for clean air and water, and Bush decimated it.

George Bush has the birthchart of the frat boy that he is. His Cancer sun gives him an emotional sensitivity that has little support in the rest of his chart, making him peevish and pouty. His Sun is squared (90 degree angle) by a tight conjunction of Chiron/Moon/Jupiter in Libra. His Leo ascendant and stellium in the first house (with Mercury, Pluto and Venus) makes him the life of the party – the jovial seeker of attention that wants to be celebrated (Leo) for his endeavors. The Moon/Jupiter in Libra shows someone who wants to be liked, and who knows how to bring out in others the desired effect. Chiron conjunct the moon shows early psychological wounding (Chiron) by the mother (Moon) which is certainly not hard to imagine. And the Moon/Jupiter in square to the Sun indicates someone who tends toward arrogance and overconfidence. Bush’s chart lacks oppositions (planets in 180 degree angles to each other), which tend to give one a sense of perspective. Without oppositions he tends to lack the ability to see any view other than his own.

This combination of planetary influences makes Bush the perfect foil for the puppetmasters who have manipulated him with delusions of grandeur in order to accomplish their greater schemes. Where Nixon was the architect of his own demise, Bush will be the fall guy for the corruption of others.