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.
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.