Gerald Ford (38th president)
Term: 1974-77
Party: Republican
Gerald Ford is unique for being the only president that we’ve ever had who was not elected either president or vice-president. Recall that Ford was Speaker of the House of Representatives in the early 70’s while Nixon and Agnew were in the White House. Agnew was forced to resign due to bribery charges, and Nixon, of course, resigned due to Watergate. When Agnew resigned, Ford had been appointed VP, and that was the office he occupied when Nixon skipped town.
ABOVE: Ford survived two assassination attempts. One was by Squeaky Fromme, one of Charles Manson’s followers
People really wanted to like Ford, especially after the Watergate nightmare. But he sealed his fate early when he gave Nixon a full pardon. Although there is no evidence that one was made, Ford was never able to escape the accusations that a deal had been brokered between a beleagered Nixon and an opportunistic Ford. Personally, I take Ford at his word, that he just wanted to spare the country a long and contentious trial of an ex-president and instead move forward.
ABOVE: Ford's famous tumble down the stairs of Air Force One was representative of his leadership skills in the Oval Office (sorry for the cheesy audio).
The 70’s were a tough time economically and otherwise. I’m not sure what could have been done to ease the energy and economic crises, but Ford definitely was not effective. He flipped back and forth on how he wanted to attack “stagflation" (high inflation coupled with high unemployment), and then blamed Congress for any failures in policy. He was equally unsure in foreign affairs. He waited too long to pull Americans out of Saigon, the Mayaguez rescue was a disaster (41 troops killed, 50 wounded to rescue 40 hostages aboard a U.S. merchant ship taken prisoner by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia), and while the Helsinki Accords with the Soviets looked good on paper there was no way to enforce empty Soviet promises to respect human rights.
“There is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe, and there never will be under a Ford administration.”-Ford to Jimmy Carter in the 1976 presidential debates.
ABOVE: Unfortunately for Ford, ‘Saturday Night Live’ debuted during his administration, and Chevy Chase made his career by imitating the allegedly bumbling Ford
Pros:
• Ford brings some stability and normalcy after the Constitutional crisis of Watergate
• Ford pardons Nixon, putting Watergate behind us
Cons:
• Ford pardons Nixon, in some ways increasing the deep cynicism the American people feel about politics in Washington and the American government in general after Vietnam and Watergate
• Ford has no clue on how to deal with the stagflation (high inflation, high unemployment) crisis, first asking for a tax hike, then advocating a tax cut, all the while blaming Congress.
• Ford waits too long to order the evacuation of Saigon causing the desperate scramble out of the city when the South Vietnamese capital was sure to fall to the commies
• Ford orders the embarrassing Mayaguez “rescue” and then declares it a success
• While admirable in principle, the Helsinki Accords negotiated with the Soviets has no teeth or enforcement mechanism, making it meaningless
6 comments:
OK. I am done with this list. To have Ford lower than Carter is just stupid.
Your review of his tax policies washes over what he as trying to accomplish with his tax policies affecting economic policies.
Alan Greenspan worked under every president from Nixon to Bush II and has said that Ford was the best president and best "person" of the bunch by far.
Ford's decision to pardon Nixon should be a pro. He did it knowing there would be flack, but did it anyway because he believed it was the right thing to do.
Pocky, good to hear from you again. Ford didn't know what he wanted to do with taxes at all. He wanted to raise them and then cut them. He didn't have a consistent idea on what he wanted to do at all. Honestly, I don't think anyone could have really fixed things economically in the mid and late 70's.
Ford the best "person?" Great. Maybe he was a nice guy. So what?
Notice I listed his decision to pardon Nixon as both a pro and a con, and I think I explained why.
Don't worry all you Carter-haters, he is coming shortly, I promise!
Also Pocky, for comparision purposes, if you look at all of the major presidential rankings conducted, I am not far off from the general consensus on Ford. Like I said at the beginning, I made my list before consulting the other rankings, but if you compare, they all have him in the 3rd Quartile, which is where he falls for me. And he is near the bottom of that Quartile in most of the rankings, which is where he is with me.
I am waiting to read your profile of Carter, but my initial reaction was the same as Pocky's. Ford lower than Carter? Really?
Arguing strongly about Carter and Ford is splitting hairs, no? And did Greenspan really say that Ford was the best president "by far" among those he worked for? Man, that guy's judgment has taken a beating the past couple of years.
By the way, off topic, the new Band of Horses -- at least the first half of it -- is growing on me. "Dilly" is on repeat around here a lot. After that, it still sounds a bit slow and uninspired to me, but up to that point I'm digging it more.
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