Sorry - I remember Ford as a "placeholder" and not much else.

[johnaries]

All I really remember about Ford was that he was the first President that was never elected (since he was appointed VP), and the perfect excuse for Chevy Chase's pratfalls. And golf.

I remember a lot of people being angry that he pardoned Nixon, but he may have been right in that it was time to move on and let the country heal. Then again, his critics may have been right that the country may have healed quicker and better if Nixon had been "brought to justice". No use second-guessing.

So, I can't really say anything good or bad about the man. In my recollection, he wasn't really anything more than a "placeholder" until the next election.

[niyad]

1. first unelected president--that is what I always remember. had far more

admiration for his wife.

[Hoosier Dem]

3. Ford wasn't the first "un-elected" president

Go back to the crooked election of 1876, when the Republicans blatantly stole the election based on the disputed votes of one Southern state. That was so blatantly corrupt that it made 2000 look clean!

[Hoosier Dem]

2. You are right...

Ford will never be reanked as one of the "Great" or "Near Great" presidents. One hundred years from now, he'll be remebered about as much as Rutherford Hayes or benjamin Harrison.

He took office under bizarre circumstances and helped the country move past Watergate. As one poster said here earlier, he may well be remembered as the last of the Moderate Republican presidents.

[sallyseven]

5. I remember it well. Nixon thought that

he could not be impeached because they would not dare have Ford put in the middle of a war. He thought of him as his insurance policy. Not many people knew him. He use to have the Ford and Dirkson show. Two republicans telling America the way it should be not what the democrats thought it should be. Jerry Ford was a decent person and a calming president. It could have been a horror show.

[William769]

4. President Ford the accidental President in more ways than one.

[Aristus]

6. I remember even as a kid that it seemed funny that such a cipher of a

President should be in office during the Bicentennial celebration. He cut the cake for the country in 1976,(with a ceremonial sword, if I remember correctly) but not much else.

[rfranklin]

7. You're right,,,he was a joke...following by a bigger joke...

I remember it well.

[niyad]

13. "following by a bigger joke" ? surely you are not referring to President Carter?

[rfranklin]

20. Nah, I was thinking of Reagan...

Just came out of surgery--drugs haven't worn off.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

8. Ford did one really good thing:

He appointed Justice Stevens to the Supreme Court -- and he's been the swing liberal vote on a lot of important cases.

[johnaries]

10. Stevens was a moderate Republican.

He only seems Liberal now because the Court has shifted to the Right.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

14. True, but he usually votes with the liberals.

And he's pretty old. So I hope he stays healthy for at least another two years...

[johnaries]

18. That is true, also. But as I said

that is because the Court has shifted to the Right.

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad he's there and I don't want to see him retire anytime soon, but Ford's selection of Stevens was more of an "appeasement" than anything else at the time.

[damntexdem]

9. Wasn't he also the first president who couldn't ...

walk and chew gum at the same time? Of course, we've had another, also unelected, example of that since. ;-)

[rsdsharp]

24. He got a bad rap on that.

People forget that Ford was the starting center for the Michigan football team in the 1930s, including a national championship team. He was offered professional contracts by both the Packers and Lions.

Unlike the current cheerleader-in-chief, Ford actually played a major college sport, and played it very, very, well.

[Old and In the Way]

11. People forget why he wasn't elected when he actually ran.

He allowed the cover-up of Nixon's war on the political opposition. That's the reality. That was the price he paid to be selected VP.

[Phredicles]

12. Not a great president by any means, but a good man, I think;

easily the best Republican president of my lifetime. (Talk about damning with faint praise)

[johnaries]

15. "easily the best Republican president of my lifetime" LOL! True!

Or as I would say, "at least he didn't screw things up too badly".....

[RaleighNCDUer]

16. I believe his pardon of Nixon bordered on the criminal, and paved

the way for 30 years of subsequent abuses by unprosecuted Nixonian criminals, not the least of whom are Cheney, Rumsfeld and (his appointee to head the CIA) Bush, which spawned the current incarnation of the BFEE.

And even at that, he was the best republican president in my memory (Ike was pres when I didn't know what the pres was).

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

17. Don't forget he was instrumental in the

"magic bullet" theory from the JFK assassination whitewash,

AND

he gave Cheney, Rumsefeld, and Baker their first taste of power


for those two things alone, he should rot in hell.

[johnaries]

19. To be fair, I don't think he was prescient enough to know

how Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Baker would turn out.

Again, I can't say anything good or bad about him. To use a Bushism, to me he was a "comma" between Nixon and Carter.

[uppityperson]

21. That's about it for him, an accidental president, a placeholder.

did good, did bad, made mistakes, tried, was human. RIP Mr.Ford.

[calzone]

22. I don't feel the need to honor Ford's memory

I can't feel sympathy or the need to show restraint in criticism or tolerant respect to this man.
Here are some facts about Gerald Ford.

From various major encyclopedias:
"A month after becoming president, he startled the nation by granting Nixon an unconditional pardon for any offenses he may have committed against the United States. A storm of protest arose, amid cries that a deal had been struck. No one has made the allegation stick, although Ford and Nixon were in constant negotiations before and after Ford took the presidential oath. Ford, keenly sensitive to the lingering suspicions, has insisted that his sole aim was to help heal the wounds of the nation. With poor timing, he announced only a few days after the pardon his amnesty proposal for Vietnam draft resisters and evaders. Unlike Nixon, they would have to meet conditions.

The program did not offer automatic reentry into U.S. society—it did require two years of public service—it was unpopular with conservative groups and with the very men it was supposed to help. The amnesty program received applications from only 20 percent of eligible U.S. citizens and was discontinued after two years.

Unconditional amnesty, however, did not come about until the Jimmy Carter presidency

Ford's first press secretary and close friend Jerald Horst resigned his post in protest after the announcement of President Nixon's full pardon.

Nixon's chief of staff, Alexander Haig, offered a deal to Ford.

Bob Woodward, in his book, Shadow, recounts the Haig deal. Woodward recounts that Haig entered Ford's office on August 1, 1974 while Ford was still Vice President and Nixon had yet to resign. Haig told Ford that there were three pardon options: (1) Nixon could pardon himself and resign, (2) Nixon could pardon his aides involved in Watergate and then resign, or (3) Nixon could agree to leave in return for an agreement that the new president would pardon him. After listing these options, Haig handed Ford various papers; one of these papers included a discussion of the president's legal authority to pardon and another sheet was a draft pardon form that only needed Ford's signature and Nixon's name to make it legal. Woodward summarizes the setting between Haig and Ford as follows: "Even if Haig offered no direct words on his views, the message was almost certainly sent.
Ford had a tense relationship with the Democrat-controlled Congress, vetoing more than 50 bills

When New York City fell into dire financial straits, Ford was unmoved. A now-famous headline in the New York Daily News--ford to city: drop dead-- helped underscore his apparent insensitivity to the national significance of the city's plight. In the presidential campaign of 1976, he aroused sympathy but not much support. In the election, his loss to Jimmy Carter was widely interpreted as completing the fall of the Nixon administration, for he had retained as his own staff most of Nixon's appointees.

To deal with the economic recession, Ford proposed (1975) tax cuts, limited social spending (with continued high defense expenditure), and heavy taxation on imported oil. The Democratic Congress opposed many elements of the program.

Ford covers up CIA crimes
http://www.counterpunch.org/floyd0828.html

http://www.buzzflash.com/farrell/04/05/far04017.html

Ford's first chief of staff?
Donald Rumsfeld.
His second?
Dick Cheney.

I believe there was a corrupt bargain. I also believe in drawing a line at what I'll overlook in the interest of polite compassion. I don't celebrate Ford's death, but he had an opportunity to make the world a better place, and unlike his successor, he failed miserably...and showed poor character.
If he were a private citizen, I wouldn't bring up his shortcomings or transgressions at his funeral, but he wasn't, he was a leader of a great nation. I look at him the same way I'd look at a president that Dubya appointed just before he was being finally charged with crimes after a smoking gun emerged. A Dubya appointed republican loyalist president that one month later, out of the blue, gave a complete and unqualified PARDON to George W. Bush. Do you think Cindy Sheehan or the families of all the people killed in Iraq would refrain from criticism of that appointed president upon his demise? Do you think they would offer kind words and reconcilliatory sentiments? I don't.

[cornermouse]

23. He was still better than Dubya.

[EFerrari]

25. The man is gone and I'd like to be able to just respect his family.

But when the press in this very liberal town runs headlines "Ford calmed the Country", I have to speak up.

Because, what does that mean, exactly?

It means he covered the asses of the political elite.

And it means that among those elite, he covered for Pinochet.

So as much as I adore Betty Ford, her husband was a bought piece of sh@t. And no way will I allow revision of that fact, that fact literally carved into skin, pass.

Can't do that.

[lastknowngood]

26. He put Dumbsfeld and darth Chaney in charge to the vietnam war

it was Dumbsfeld that came up with operation eagle pull which ended in the helicopter evacuations in Saigon.

[lonestarnot]

27. He should have at least succeeded in getting a full written signed confession

prior to granting the pardon and maybe he could have overcome his pardon bullshit. Nixon was able to legitimately argue, albeit I didn't believe him, that he didn't do anything wrong, just merely lost political power. Hmmmmf. Bullshit.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

28. Are you stoned?

That was not in the deal.

[lonestarnot]

29. heh heh heh stoned?

What wasn't in the deal? A confession?

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

31. Of course not, it was just a simple

deal to get him (Ford) to the top spot, pardon Nixon, and pave the way for the rest of the GOP agenda we have seen since.

[lonestarnot]

32. They wanted the Nixon criminal out of the headlines.

That's back when I read newspapers.

[lonestarnot]

30. much like this