One postal customer writes "I am not a crook" next to each Richard Nixon stamp he uses. Another offers how he never imagined himself "licking the back" of the only U.S. president to resign in disgrace.
The new stamp honoring the 37th president is proving to be, like the man himself, controversial.The 32-cent Nixon stamp went on sale April 26 at the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, Calif., a year after his burial there. Collectors lined up to buy them, with more than 2.5 million sold the first day. But since then, the former president's postal popularity has been mixed.
The antagonism:
"Poor Nixon. I've had people come in and say, `Give me any kind of stamp, just don't give me Nixon,' " said Ivy Delvalle, a New York City postal clerk.
"I've sold a few, but they don't sell like the others," said clerk Kelvin Chapman in Mobile, Ala. "I've had people turn them down and say `give me something else.' "
The apathy:
"It doesn't matter to me, as long as it gets the mail there. But I guess I'd rather have Elvis," said postal customer Tony Janssen in Des Moines, Iowa.
The support:
"I like Richard Nixon. He may have done some things wrong, but I think he did a lot right," said Mace Berrin, 32, a postal customer in New York.
"I wouldn't mind buying the stamp. Poor guy. I would've thought that people would have gotten over it by now," said Seattle customer Paul Billington.
The witticisms:
A Seattle postal clerk recalled that one customer "came up and showed me that he had given Nixon a speech balloon saying `I am not a crook' for every stamp that he had used."
In the nation's capital, the Nixon stamp hasn't been selling well.
"In a Democratic city he's not going to be popular," observed Walter Simpson, a clerk at Washington's main post office, who said some customers are rejecting the stamp.
Azeezaly Jaffer, manager of stamp services for the Postal Service, said a few offices have ordered extra Nixon stamps and none has been returned unsold. About 80 million Nixon stamps were printed, Jaffer said. It usually takes six months to get sales figures.
Jaffer said he received some letters of complaint when plans for the Nixon stamp were announced, but none since it went on sale. The post office traditionally issues a stamp honoring a past president in the year following his death. Some people contend that Nixon should not be included because he resigned from office under a cloud.