Decision ‘08

More Remembrances Of Gerald Ford

Today seems to be the day that people have come to terms with the death of the late President, and written more reflective pieces. From the Wall Street Journal editorial board:

The abiding cliché about Gerald Ford–who died Tuesday at age 93–is that he was a decent man who steadied the country but held the White House too briefly to leave a major imprint. We’ve always thought that view of his Presidency is too diminishing, not least because he led the nation at a dangerous time and resisted political furies that could have done the U.S. far more harm.

“America’s Suicide Attempt” is how the historian Paul Johnson describes the 1970s. And it is important to recall the bad temper of the times that Ford inherited in becoming the 38th President. He succeeded Richard Nixon, who had resigned over the Watergate coverup and amid an unpopular war in Vietnam. He faced large liberal majorities in Congress that were emboldened by their ouster of Nixon and set to revive the Great Society. And he had to clean up the financial problems caused by a burst of inflation and wage and price controls. Ford navigated all of these traumas better than he gets credit for.

George Will:

Those who believe that a kindly Providence keeps a watchful eye on America’s welfare can cite the fact of Gerald Ford. On Aug. 9, 1974, at a moment when the nation was putting aside an unhappy, tormented president, and was aching for serenity in high places, to the center of national life strode an abnormality — a happy, normal man as president.

Watergate and a presidential resignation were only two of the nation’s problems that August. The mid-’70s were years when everyday things could no longer be counted on — inflation was undermining the currency as a store of value, and lines at gasoline pumps testified to the power of foreigners to get between the Americans and their best friends, their automobiles. Ford was a political sedative for a nation with jangled nerves.

Bob Dole:

We were fortunate in 1974, a time of crisis, to have the right person in the right place at the right time. When the country needed healing, reconciliation and restoration of confidence, Gerald Ford provided it.

He was a principled partisan, a GOP leader who worked diligently for Republican causes but who knew the limits of partisanship. He could also count — and he knew that with Republicans in the minority, if he was to accomplish anything as House Republican leader or as president, he would often need a bipartisan approach.

A lesson for today, you can bet…

As for myself, President Ford was the first candidate I supported in a presidential election (though, at the age of eight, my vote did not count). He lost, so I got used to the bitter taste of political defeat early. I’d like to remember Gerald Ford the way the Simpsons did.

After the first President Bush moves into the neighborhood, and clashes with the buffoonish Homer, he moves away in disgust…but a new moving van quickly arrives, and out comes another ex-President, Gerald Ford. Let’s join the show already in progress:

No sooner have the Bushes departed that another moving truck pulls in along with a car with license plate “Mr. Duh”.

Gerry: Hi! Pleased to meet you, I just moved in. My name is Gerry Ford.
Homer: [gasps] Former President Gerald Ford? Put her there! I’m Homer Simpson!
Gerry: Say, Homer, do you like football?
Homer: Do I ever!
Gerry: Do you like nachos?
Homer: Yes, Mr. Ford.
Gerry: Well, why don’t you come over and watch the game, and we’ll have nachos? And then, some beer.
Homer: Ooh!
        [they walk across the street]
       Gerry, I think you and I are going to get along just –
        [they both trip]
Both: D’oh!

If I call Gerald Ford the Homer Simpson of presidents, believe you me, it’s no insult…

2 Responses to “More Remembrances Of Gerald Ford”

1 Dennis Says:
December 28th, 2006 at 9:36 am
I must admit, I supported Carter over Ford in the ‘76 election, the first I can recall. In my defense, my reasoning was that I was 6, I knew Carter was a peanut farmer, and I liked peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

Four years later, I smartened up.
2 too many steves Says:
December 28th, 2006 at 10:52 am
That reasoning continues to work well for most Democrat voters! JUST KIDDING! My daughter voted for Bill Clinton in her 1992 first grade mock election because his last name, Clinton, begins with the same letter as her first name, Caitlin.

I liked Ford for the same reasons I like Reagan and George W. Bush: he believed in something and was willing to stand up for it, whatever the cost to himself, politically, and he was a classic American optimist who believed we could do anything and overcome any obstacle.