text: Nixon thought the same thing.  The red states (South) will never go along with impeachment.  Then Barry Goldwater, a right-wing extremist himself, broke the bad news to him. That;s when Nixon went nuts and General Haig had to intervene and calmed him down with a "Ford pardon deal".  For years thereafter Nixon holed up in seclusion in San Clemente, CA.  It's all in Woodward and Bernstein's book, "The Final Days".