He was a paranoiac and sociopathic. As a person that makes him awful, but as a politician he was pretty skilled. If he could've reigned himself in enough not to do Watergate, he'd probably be remembered well since we usually remember powerful people for big accomplishments over horrid personalities. He has tons of things the mainstream could love like Title IX, the EPA, tribal self-determination for Amerindians, and lowering the voting age to 18. It's also funny that Nixon made the Asian census category thinking Indian-Americans would be grateful for the affirmative action. On the bright side, he was for law and order, opened China to the US, eased Cold War tensions, and was possibly a better speaker than JFK (depending on how one interprets radio listeners thinking Nixon was better in the debates than the TV viewers seeing him sweat). I used to think we're too focused on Watergate now, but during his lifetime post-Watergate his reputation made a pretty decent recovery and without Watergate he'd probably be remembered vaguely for being okay (or for lewd campaign slogans) and post-Great Awokening there'd be chatter about the Southern strategy vs his desegregation of schools and rights for Amerindians.