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The Nixon pardon 40 years later: The decision looks better and better with age
American Thinker ^ | 09/09/2014 | Silvio Canto Jr.

Posted on 09/09/2014 8:21:48 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

It was President Ford’s biggest and most courageous decision.  

It probably hurt the GOP in the 1974 midterm elections. In fact, I was a college volunteer on some campaigns in that election. The party people that I was listening to agreed with the pardon but screamed the same question: "Why didn't he do it after the election"?

Many in the GOP correctly felt that the new Ford presidency would spare them the Watergate backlash and 6th year losses.  

And it probably cost him the very close presidential election of 1976. The pardon was used by the Carter campaign to promote their campaign of "change."

However, it was the right thing to do and further evidence that some presidents lead and others do “hope and change”.

Let’s recall the events of September 8, 1974:

“……President Gerald Ford, who assumed office on the heels of President Richard M. Nixon‘s resignation, pardons his predecessor for his involvement in the Watergate scandal.”

As I recall, it happened on a Sunday morning. I was leaving mass and headed home to have lunch with my parents when I heard the flash on the radio. I saw the TV reports with my father when I got home. My father's initial reaction was that it made sense but it would be politically difficult. 

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: History; Society
KEYWORDS: geraldford; nixon; pardon; watergate

1 posted on 09/09/2014 8:21:48 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

Ford was part of the old WWII gentlemanly republican left that helped destroy America by being being socially liberal, which means that the democrats were given free rein to deconstruct America culturally and morally, while the two sides fought over taxes.


2 posted on 09/09/2014 8:31:09 AM PDT by ansel12 (LEGAL immigrants, 30 million 1980-2012, continues to remake the nation's electorate for democrats)
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To: ansel12

Ford was the hapless President who PLEADED with the Democrat controlled Congress for funds to support South Vietnam.

The Dems said no and and the rest is history (including the subsequent killing fields of Cambodia ).

It’s being repeated in Iraq when we withdrew our troops in 2012.


3 posted on 09/09/2014 8:34:38 AM PDT by SeekAndFind (If at first you don't succeed, put it out for beta test.)
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To: SeekAndFind
Heard the oddest thing about this:

Ford did not want to pardon Nixon, but,
Nixon had proof that Ford helped "doctor" the JFK autopsy report for the Warren Commission (removing the proof of 2nd shooter).
Ford (obviously) decided to pardon Nixon.

4 posted on 09/09/2014 8:36:07 AM PDT by Psalm 73 ("Gentlemen, you can't fight in here - this is the War Room".)
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To: Psalm 73

Ford was the mastermind of the Kennedy cover-up.


5 posted on 09/09/2014 8:38:04 AM PDT by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
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To: SeekAndFind
Ford was the hapless President who PLEADED with the Democrat controlled Congress for funds to support South Vietnam

Dead On. If air cover had been maintained, Vo Nguyen Giap would have never been able to send tanks South through the DMZ and destroy the ARVN infantry...who frankly didn't need much persuasion to run.

The rest is brutal history: 2 million dead in "Kampuchea", and unknown tens of thousands executed in South Vietnam.

Just call him Doofus.

6 posted on 09/09/2014 8:47:41 AM PDT by Regulator
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To: editor-surveyor; Psalm 73

Thanks for sharing as I had never before heard Ford’s name mentioned in the investigation into the assassination of JFK.


7 posted on 09/09/2014 8:48:03 AM PDT by Army Air Corps (Four Fried Chickens and a Coke)
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To: editor-surveyor
Probably so. Just look at the Zapruder film. The fatal shot hit JFK from the front, blowing the back of his head off and onto the trunk lid. Oswald may have been a shooter but wasn't the shooter.
8 posted on 09/09/2014 8:49:29 AM PDT by libstripper
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To: Psalm 73
Gerald Ford's Terrible Fiction
9 posted on 09/09/2014 8:55:49 AM PDT by Fresh Wind (The last remnants of the Old Republic have been swept away.)
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To: SeekAndFind
If Nixon had been impeached and the US had survived ... which it would have ... then it would have set a good precedent.

We could have impeached Clinton and now we could impeach Obama.

The American people would see that if they got a tingle up their collective leg to vote for a sweet talkin' empty suit they wouldn't have to wait four years to atone for their mistake.

10 posted on 09/09/2014 9:00:58 AM PDT by who_would_fardels_bear
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To: editor-surveyor
"Ford was the mastermind of the Kennedy cover-up."

Apparently.
The author and the radio-show guy were talking as if this was common knowledge - I was kind of blown-away that I'd never heard that before (and I was raised by JBS members....)

11 posted on 09/09/2014 9:01:54 AM PDT by Psalm 73 ("Gentlemen, you can't fight in here - this is the War Room".)
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To: who_would_fardels_bear

RE: We could have impeached Clinton

We DID impeach Clinton. Didn’t work to remove him. And we even had the GOP in control of both houses then.


12 posted on 09/09/2014 9:07:03 AM PDT by SeekAndFind (If at first you don't succeed, put it out for beta test.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Yes the HOP had control but you need 66 votes in the senate and they didn’t have that.


13 posted on 09/09/2014 9:18:06 AM PDT by what's up
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To: SeekAndFind

All that did was delay the Democrat drive to make being a Republican a crime for about a decade.


14 posted on 09/09/2014 9:23:31 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: kalee

Place marker


15 posted on 09/09/2014 9:47:23 AM PDT by kalee
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