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To: Borges
RIP President Ford - he was a good man in a tough spot.


Gerald R. Ford, Jr. on the field of Michigan Stadium at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI. 1933.

Gerry's gone up to join Schembechler and Yost at the Big House in the sky....

85 posted on 12/26/2006 8:59:32 PM PST by Yossarian (Everyday, somewhere on the globe, somebody is pushing the frontier of stupidity.)
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To: Yossarian

Here's the full AP obituary. There's a reason why the AP uses the institutional voice, and no particular writer signs his name to this crap:

________________________

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/12/26/D8M8VQT00.html

Former President Ford Dead at 93


Gerald R. Ford, who picked up the pieces of Richard Nixon's scandal- shattered White House as the 38th and only unelected president in America's history, has died, his wife, Betty, said Tuesday. He was 93.

Ford had battled pneumonia in January 2006 and underwent two heart treatments _ including an angioplasty _ in August at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

He was the longest living president, followed by Ronald Reagan, who also died at 93. Ford had been living at his desert home in Rancho Mirage, Calif., about 130 miles east of Los Angeles.

Ford was an accidental president, Nixon's hand-picked successor, a man of much political experience who had never run on a national ticket. He was as open and straight-forward as Nixon was tightly-controlled and conspiratorial.

Ford was an accidental president, Nixon's hand-picked successor, a man of much political experience who had never run on a national ticket. He was as open and straight-forward as Nixon was tightly controlled and conspiratorial.

He took office minutes after Nixon flew off into exile and declared "our long national nightmare is over." But he revived the debate a month later by granting Nixon a pardon for all crimes he committed as president. That single act, it was widely believed, cost Ford election to a term of his own in 1976, but it won praise in later years as a courageous act that allowed the nation to move on.

The Vietnam War ended in defeat for the U.S. during his presidency with the fall of Saigon in April 1975. In a speech as the end neared, Ford said: "Today, America can regain the sense of pride that existed before Vietnam. But it cannot be achieved by refighting a war that is finished as far as America is concerned." Evoking Abraham Lincoln, he said it was time to "look forward to an agenda for the future, to unify, to bind up the nation's wounds."

Ford also earned a place in the history books as the first unelected vice president, chosen by Nixon to replace Spiro Agnew who also was forced from office by scandal.

He was in the White House only 895 days, but changed it more than it changed him.

Even after two women tried separately to kill him, the presidency of Jerry Ford remained open and plain.

Not imperial. Not reclusive. And, of greatest satisfaction to a nation numbed by Watergate, not dishonest.


113 posted on 12/26/2006 9:02:54 PM PST by BCrago66
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To: Yossarian

That is one neat photo!


122 posted on 12/26/2006 9:04:56 PM PST by sageb1 (This is the Final Crusade. There are only 2 sides. Pick one.)
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To: Yossarian

Love that picture... haven't seen it before.

I live in his hometown, GR, MI. Many moons ago, in 7th grade govt class (Ford was running against Carter), we were asked to draw our own campaign posters.

Mine was a Ford Sedan running over a large peanut.

I got a D.

heh


150 posted on 12/26/2006 9:10:00 PM PST by Number57 ("Don't quote Dickens in my apartment!"~ Joe Young)
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To: Yossarian

He sure looks like a tough SOB in that photo.


160 posted on 12/26/2006 9:11:39 PM PST by Spruce
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To: Yossarian

..one more football picture of President Ford.

230 posted on 12/26/2006 9:25:38 PM PST by Troublemaker
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To: Yossarian
Great picture.

Thank you for posting it.

Gerald Ford/Leslie Lynch King, Jr. was a very decent man.

RIP

452 posted on 12/27/2006 3:50:35 AM PST by beyond the sea ( All lies and jest, still the man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.)
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