Despite His Failures, Ford Was No Nixon

Gerald R. Ford was a professional politician who tempered the practice of his trade's deceits with innate decency. That was demonstrated to me on April 1, 1971, in an incident unique in my half-century as a Washington reporter.

I had been tipped that House Republican Leader Ford was performing a confidential mission at President Richard Nixon's request: to ask Republican members of Congress how they would react to presidential clemency or even a pardon for Lt. William Calley, sentenced a day earlier for the murder of 22 Vietnamese civilians. I called Ford to ask whether Nixon had met with him to pursue that endeavor. Ford replied that was incorrect. I had covered Ford for 14 years, and I accepted his word.

Thirty minutes later, Ford called me back. "Bob, you asked me the wrong question," he said. He had not met with Nixon, but the president had phoned him from San Clemente to make the improper request. No news source ever bailed me out the way Ford did that day. But why did he not give me a straight answer in the first place?

The incident foretold ambivalence in Ford's two-year presidency. Declaring after succeeding Nixon that "our long national nightmare is over," Ford soothed his troubled fellow citizens. The accidental president seemed on the brink of great achievements. In fact, his tenure was plagued by blunders and occasional pettiness.

Jerry Ford never would have been considered for the White House had it not been for successive forced resignations of a vice president and a president. He was not in the front line of Republican notables, and Nixon's choice of him surprised even Ford's closest House associates.

Calculating that Watergate never would bring him down, Nixon did not think he was picking a successor when he replaced the disgraced Spiro T. Agnew as vice president. Consequently, he passed over towering figures from opposite wings of the Republican Party, Nelson Rockefeller and Ronald Reagan. Nixon would have preferred John Connally, but his old congressional sidekick, Melvin Laird, convinced him that the Democratic turncoat could not be confirmed by Congress. Nixon picked Ford as somebody he could trust.

Ford, who never aspired to be president, was a man of the House concerned about arrogation of power by the executive branch at the expense of the legislative. He was the only president in my experience who entered the Oval Office wanting to shrink rather than expand powers of the office. In a conversation with him as vice president, Ford recommended to me "The Twilight of the Presidency" by George Reedy -- an indictment of monarchial pretensions. Ford told me all recent presidents, including his hero Dwight D. Eisenhower, were guilty.

So, Ford tried to depict himself as an ordinary guy in the White House who toasted his own muffins for breakfast. His public support soared, but a weak president cannot maintain his popularity for long. He often seemed feckless (as in his WIN campaign to Whip Inflation Now) or powerless (as when Congress ended the Vietnam War with a Communist victory by cutting off funds to South Vietnam).

Ford's years in power were turbulent and discordant. After his pardon of Nixon saved the nation the tribulation of a former president in the criminal dock, the country repudiated Ford in midterm elections where Democrats stretched their lead in the House to 145 seats. That guaranteed the Republican challenge by Ronald Reagan that nearly succeeded and gave Jimmy Carter a huge lead in the general election campaign.

Ford as president was burdened by a White House divided into feuding factions and by bad advice. He seemed more like Nixon than Ford in snubbing Nobel laureate Alexander Solzhenitsyn because Henry Kissinger contended that the great Russian novelist threatened U.S.-Soviet detente. Ford never connected with the anti-communist, tax-cutting and religious conservative ideology that soon would make Republicans the majority party for a generation.

A president whose reputation exceeded his record, Ford was more comfortable and popular during 30 years of retirement than in his 895 days in the Oval Office. He is fondly remembered not for his failed presidency, but for not becoming another Nixon as Nixon's appointed successor.

Gerald Ford was so inept that he easily kicked Reagan's rump in the 1976 primaries. The great communicator was unable to convince Republicans not to nominate Ford. Or put another way Ford conviced Republicans that Reagan did not deserve the nomination. In any event the great communicator got his rear end handed to him on a silver platter.

I remember Reagan being asked why he lost the nomination to Ford. Reagan's answer was, "He got more votes than I did!!!"

It was a massive Ford defeat if you consider that Carter won with 50.1 percent of the vote. Yet they term that as a massive Ford defeat.

When Ford took office the inflation rate was 14 plus percent. Ford managed to cut that to about 7.9 percent during his short term in off ice. The unemployment rate was nearly 10 percent and Ford managed to cut that to a little under 7 percent during his short term in office.

What most people don't understand is that the constitution only allows a president to be impeached and removed from office for what the constitution defines as high crimes and misdemeanors. That pretty much covers the range of illegal activities. He can not be tried in a regular court for actions taken as president. He can only be impeached by the house and then convicted by the senate.

An executive subject to prosecution based on an indictment and trial in the court system would be subservient to every federal and state prosecutor in the nation. That is why only impeachment by the house and conviction by the senate is allowed. The only punishment is removal from office.

Does anyone actually believe that an exception would be made so a president could be tried in regular court after he left office. That would allow prosecutors and judges to blackmail any president with threats to both try and convict a president after he left office for anything they did not want him to do while in office.

The hose impeachment and senate conviction was put in the Constitution so no president at any time would be subject to regular court justice.

No court ... dominated by Republicans or Democrats would allow a regular trial to take place. A prosecutor and judge who could take down an ex president of one party could do it to the other party as well. If a president could be tried in regular court for crimes committed while in office, after he left office the impeachment and senate conviction provisions including removal from office as the only punishment would mean nothing.

What Ford did was take a terrible political hit to put the useless litigation the Democrats wanted behind us. The Democrats knew what the constitution said. They just wanted to make political hay from the situation and Ford sacrificed his political career to prevent them from doing it.

Some less than bright Conservatives have never forgiven him for that act.

Those foolish enough to believe that the supreme court or even a lower court would have allowed Nixon to be tried for things he did in office have to believe that the constitution means nothing. No court no matter how political could believe that regular court actions taken against a Republican president would not be, at some point, taken against a Democratic president.

An interesting constitutional theory, but quite wrong. Need you be reminded that William J. Clinton was convicted in criminal court even before he left office?

If you wish to make the distinction that Clinton's crimes were unrelated to the office, nevertheless no court has ever been in a position to rule on whether a president's crimes in office are punishable criminally. The fact that the constitution provides for a method to remove the president does not address the issue at all. Ask Pinochet about executive immunity!

The times being what they were, and I remember them well, a prosecution of Nixon was highly likely and it is highly doubtful that any court, including appellate, would have intervened.

And while Ford did beat Reagan in the early primaries, the primary season ended with a long string of Reagan victories and Ford was only able to win renomination when the unelected Mississippi delegation moved into his column. It was that close.

>>>>Gerald Ford was so inept that he easily kicked Reagan's rump in the 1976 primaries.

OMG! You can't be serious. The outcome of 1976 GOP primary election races, was the closest primary season in American history. Ford won 15 state primaries and Reagan won 12. The nomination was settled at the 1976 Republican Convention.

>>>>In any event the great communicator got his rear end handed to him on a silver platter.

BULLoney! Ronald Reagan lost the nomination to Pres Ford by a small margin of convention voters. Reagan fell short by only 60 votes. The winner needed 1130, Ford got 1187 to 1070 for Reagan. Truth be told, many of the GOP delegates who voted for Ford knew they had voted for the wrong man. As POTUS, Ford was an utter failure. In many ways and on many issues, Ford was no better then Jimmah Carter. Btw, Ford was the last pro-choice nominee of the GOP.

>>>>When Ford took office the inflation rate was 14 plus percent. Ford managed to cut that to about 7.9 percent during his short term in office.

Nonsense! Under Nixon, inflation was at 6.16% for 1973. In 1974 under Ford, inflation shot up to 11.03%, before coming to 9.2% in 1975 and 5.75% in 1976. In 1977 inflation skyrocketed under Carter.

>>>>The unemployment rate was nearly 10 percent and Ford managed to cut that to a little under 7 percent during his short term in office.

More nonsense! When Ford took office monthly unemployment was at 5.5%. It shot up to 9.0% by May 1975. Ending at 7.8% by the end of Ford's term in office.

LBJ retired in disgrace. Nixon resigned in disgrace. Ford was defeated by a disgrace named Jimmah Carter. A look at the historic record shows by any reasonable evaluation, that Ford`s Presidency was a disgrace.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.