IMHO, President Ford should have waited until AFTER the 1976 election (which Ford probably would have won) to pardon Nixon,
IMHO, that pardon cost Ford 4 more years as POTUS, and, due to the disastrous Carter presidency, IS STILL costing the USA socially, politically and economically in many, many ways!
I seem to vaguely remember Ford saying something really stupid, about the Warsaw Pact. I think that didn’t help him either.