Well put. I remember those times clearly (unfortunately) and have always thought that Ford has been underestimated by history. It took guts for him to pardon Nixon, but that was exactly the right thing to do at that time. The ultimate "time to move on".
I also thought he handled that crisis with North Korea very well.
President Ford was the recipient of the worst press coverage I can recall. The press constistently portrayed him as a bumbling idiot and took delight in highlighting his physical mishaps even though he was he most athletic president in history.
He was really more conservative than what people give him credit for.