People have long theorized about the ways that Richard Nixon might have saved his presidency during the Watergate scandal. Some suggested he should have come clean. "The cover-up is always worse than the crime." Others suggested he should have just held a public bonfire of the Watergate tapes on the White House lawn.
No. The way to save his presidency would have been to call Bob Woodward into the Oval Office and tell him everything.
[More on the flip.]
He could have rested easy knowing that Bob Woodward would not report anything he learned until he had a book deal. And then he would only report it in the light most favorable to Nixon. In WP articles and public appearances, Woodward would certainly lie and obfuscate to make Nixon's life easier. He would poopoo the very idea that Watergate was a "REAL scandal," like Teapot Dome. We can assume he would have reported that Archibald Cox, the Watergate Special Prosecutor, was making a mountain of a molehill!
And in the final irony, when he was subpoenaed by Cox, Bob Woodward would have gone to jail to protect Richard Nixon, his precious source, in the false pretense that he was doing it for the good of journalism.
See how easily it is done? Nixon was a fool. Instead of plumbers and dirty tricks, all he had to do was call Bob into his office, wrap an arm around him, flatter him about what a great reporter is, and then bend over, whisper in his ear, and tell him all the dirty secrets of the Nixon White House. Just leave him wanting a little bit more. Make him feel like he's part of the club.
It's that easy. Apparently.