The Shakespearean downfall of Richard Nixon less than two years after winning reelection by the largest popular majority in presidential history gave vanquished Democrats, who had backed Sen. George McGovern in the race, cause for some swagger and smugness, even if many of them had secretly voted for Nixon. McGovern himself quipped that if everyone who claimed, in light of Watergate, to have voted for him actually had, Nixon could have been spared the ordeal of his second term.