There have been some pretty major people dying in the last couple days. This one is former President Gerald Ford, who never actually ran on a national ticket. (He became Vice President after Spiro Agnew resigned and President after Tricky Dick Nixon resigned.) He was the United States' first unelected VP and was the longest-lived US president ever. He is perhaps remembered most for pardoning Nixon and being in office when we admitted defeat in Vietnam.
My understanding is that Ford was quite the scholar. (Among other things, didn't he do some university teaching after he left office? I can't find this in a quick glance at his wikipedia entry, but I vaguely remember hearing about something along these lines.)
Correction (pointed out by Justin): Ford never won a national ticket. He ran for re-election in 1976 and lost to Jimmy Carter (aka, Jima Carter ... aka, the Peanut Farmer). That was the only national ticket on which he ran, though he and Reagan did negotiate a bit about Ford possibly being Reagan's runningmate in 1980.
2 days ago
3 comments:
This is a test. (Justin tried to comment but noticed something weird in the comments window.) I'll put in his comment for him.
"Ford never won on a national ticket, not never ran as you wrote (he ran in '76)."
OK, so this is clear error on my part. What I meant was that Ford never ran on a national ticket until after his presidency. He ran in 1976 and lost to Carter.
Also, a note about his choice to pardon Nixon: This was an astute move because it forced the country to move on instead of having the dragged-out BS that we've seen on occasions since then. The president is there to make intelligent political decisions, not to be our lead moralist. (Some people need to take note of this!)
OK, IE works, Mozilla doesn't...
I'd disagree that pardoning Nixon was the right move. It had to have been obligatory, or Nixon would have picked someone else who would pardon him. But sending Nixon and henchmen to prison for a decade or two might conceivably have put an end to the crime syndicate faction of the Republican party (which now essentially _is_ the Republican party). We'll never know, but maybe decisive and severe punishment of the first outbreak of Republican lawlessness would have prevented Iran-Contra, "signing statements", warrantless wiretapping, Iraq, torture, outing CIA agents working on WMD proliferation, etc.
That's why I'll be furious if Bush manages to pull a Pinochet and live a long retirement as a free man when he leaves office. That will just ensure that some other wingnut crook will walk into the White House in 2012 or 2016 and start a new round of "unitary executive" lawbreaking.
So I suppose it's Ford's own fault that he's almost certainly the last Republican president in my lifetime for whom I'll have any respect whatsoever. :-)
I'll try Mozilla later. Although I've been seriously slacking today, I'll deal with work at the moment (after writing this comment) and check that later.
I'm not sure it was obligatory. I think Ford wanted us to move on, and that was a way to force it.
I don't think sending him to prison would have prevented any of the stuff we've seen since then.
Bush will indeed be living a long life as a free man. :(
In any event, I specifically want a president who doesn't view himself as our moral leader. A moral leader (who also decides what it means to be moral...) is one of the last things we need or have ever needed. Accordingly, I'll cast my vote for Cthulhu. :)
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