Ford came to Iowa State University in Ames that fall on a campaign swing. I went to see it since how often do you see a sitting president in the flesh. Back then it was pretty rare.
After his introduction he lead off with “It’s great to be here at Ohio State University.” The entire crowd either groaned or gasped.
He did sort of save it by saying, “Ohio State is on the minds of a lot of Michigan folks during the fall.”
He deserved to lose for saying that Eastern Europe wan’t Soviet dominated.
I met (then Congressman) Ford with a small group of young Republicans.
During our DC trip we talked to a dozen Republican officeholders including a couple of cabinet members.
Every one of them was intelligent, articulate and were easily able to give solid answers to our challenging questions...
Except Gerald Ford—he was an idiot and a clown and was totally stumped by our questions. Rumors were this was caused by a football head injury—but don’t know if the rumors were correct.