I wish I could remember where I put my Whip Inflation Now button -
"Nixon picked Ford as somebody he could trust."
No kidding.
Ford never connected with the anti-communist, tax-cutting and religious conservative ideology that soon would make Republicans the majority party for a generation.Ford was an errand boy, sent by grocery clerks, to collect a bill.
As a President, Ford was a nice guy.
He wasnt much of a President, but he still was head and shoulders above Clinton or Carter.
Ford had a mess dropped in his lap and handled it to the best of his abilities.
He also ran against and lost to the last Democrat to win a non-spoilered election. Jimmy Carter, who won 51% of the vote.
Jack.
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.
Actually, Nixon was no Nixon if you disregard the liberal media's slander of him both while he was in and out of office.He was pretty much an anti-commie and thus was on the left's -hit list.
I wish I could remember where I put my Whip Inflation Now button -