An insightful look into why Gerald Ford served as President for 895 days.

[Miles Archer]

[Botany]

1. Like him or not but Jerry Ford was a good man.

Now, I am sure that some kind of deal was in place to keep Nixon out of
prison but President Ford is on the record as saying that after he took office
he was spending >50% of his time on "watergate and Nixon stuff" and so
he pardoned Nixon in order to move on and do his job.

BTW in Spring of 1975 when all the war hawks wanted to go back into
Vietnam Ford said no.

[sandensea]

2. I agree.

I always suspected the party forced him to pardon Nixon - and for all crimes he "may have committed," no less.

Nor do I blame him for naming Bush as head of the CIA - touching off a massive wave of coups, assassinations, and other illegalities that quickly ruined the agency's reputation for years to come.

He, like Carter, was in over his head and simply couldn't fathom the mafias in Washington.

On a more personal note, a relative of mine was a nurse for many years at the Eisenhower Medical Center, where Ford spent his last few weeks. From what she told me, what you saw was really what you got with Ford: a real gentleman of the old school.

It's no wonder he and Carter were such good friends.

[Botany]

3. I don't think either Carter or Ford were in over their heads

Ford was very much a D.C. player and if Reagan/HW Bush had not
worked a deal w/the Iran to hold the hoatages until after the election
I think Carter would have won re-election. Carter put solar panels up on
the White House but Reagan took them down. God only knows where we
be now if we had stayed the course for green energy since 1978.

My favorite Ford story was as President his dog took a dump in the White House
and a staffer or White House aid went to clean it up and ford stopped him/her and
said, "I don't ever expect another man to do that for me. It is my dog."

[cab67]

4. I disagree with what he did....

...but can you imagine the current president speaking English this well?