re: That reminds me of Nixon's second term.
Care to provide some examples of the federal government's efforts to "hinder, embarrass, and humiliate" California? Living in "flyover country", I can't recall any such efforts.
As for the 1972 election and Watergate, it was a fairly minor news story when the break in was discovered. It wasn't until months later (well after the election) that the facts of the cover up and obstruction of justice came to light. The absurdity of it all was that McGovern was going to lose by a huge margin anyway, so why those morons thought they needed to bug the Watergate office is beyond comprehension.