Posted on 01/03/2007 9:43:07 AM PST by jwalburg
Quite frequently, articles on the late Gerald Ford refer to him as the nation's "only unelected president." This is more than a bit misleading. There's no particularly good reason to distinguish Ford from other "accidental" presidents, the vice presidents who have assumed the presidency without being elected directly to it.
Strictly speaking, no American president has been elected directly by the people: we vote only for delegates pledged to vote a certain way in the electoral college. Besides, Ford was in a certain sense elected. Knowing full well that he would likely take over the presidency from Richard Nixon, Congress voted overwhelmingly to make Ford vice president. Ford's nomination was approved by 92-3 margin in the Senate and a 387-35 vote in the House.
Thus while Ford had no "popular" mandate, he certainly had a congressional mandate, and, one would have thought, solid support from the body that had (essentially) made him Commander in Chief. But Congress did nothing at all to make it easy for Ford.
Ford tried to his best to salvage Nixon's foreign policy achievements, continuing to work toward detente with the Soviet Union and continuing SALT, the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks. But Congress fought him every step of the way, clipping his wings as Commander in Chief.
The SALT talks broke down. Why should the Soviets bargain when Congress was going to disarm the U.S no matter what the Soviets did? And, besides, for the first time in history, the Soviets had more missiles and more nuclear capacity than the U.S. Why talk?
The media likewise did everything it could to destroy the Ford presidency. Ford was a top notch student - third in his class at Yale law school. He was the best all-around athlete ever to occupy the White House.
But the media portrayed Ford as a stumbling fool. Never mind the fact that Ford was the best skier and golfer of all presidents: the media gave us only the bad moments: a tumble on the ski slopes at Vail, a golf shot slicing into the gallery. Cartoonists and comedians caricatured Ford as a bumbling Stan Laurel type, moving clumsily from one pratfall to another.
And while we were busy laughing at Ford, the North Vietnamese and their Viet Cong allies began violating the peace accords they had signed in January of 1973. The Khmer Rouge launched an all-out effort to take over in Cambodia. Ford reminded Congress of our obligations in Southeast Asia: "American unwillingness to provide adequate assistance to allies fighting for their lives could seriously affect our credibility throughout the world as an ally."
Congress responded: by cutting off all aid to our embattled allies! The result? A bloodbath in Vietnam - and something worse than a bloodbath in Cambodia.
The Khmer Rouge executed everyone who didn't fit their idea of a model society. They killed beggars and businessmen, prostitutes and teachers. Speak French or wear glasses? You're marked for death. Whole villages were wiped out, with public executions of the most brutal kind. Young school children were forced to stone their teachers to death while screaming out, "bad teacher, bad teacher, bad teacher." Ultimately, the Khmer Rouge killed 2 million people - a third of the Cambodian population.
While all this was going on, Ford was pleading with Congress to let him intervene. But Congress turned a deaf ear to Ford's pleas - and to the screams of the dying.
Many of those who savaged Ford while he was president are now telling us what a fine man he was, claiming that if today's Republican leaders were more like him, Washington politics wouldn't be so strident. It's an old song, and Republicans have tried to dance to it often enough. But the incivility and outright viciousness of the left toward a president who (they now admit) deserved better shows that Republican attempts at "kinder and gentler" are just not the answer.
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President Ford was a good man but part of his legacy is SCOTUS Justice John Paul Stevens - 'nuff said.
The drive-by media will never be flattering to Republicans....ever. Their history has been, Ford was a buffoon, Reagan was a simpleton, Bush 41 clumsy and weak, Bush 43 stupid and a draft dodger. But the democRATS, Carter was a peacemaker, Clinton was so smart and caring, Gore ( a C student, Lower than Bush's GPA) is brilliant, Kerry the war hero is nuanced and brilliant (another C student, Lower than Bush's GPA)
Just as I thought. The selfish and spineless works of Congress are what costs us dearly. Congress has a job to do and it is not doing that job as outlined in the Constitution. They may be circumventing and undermining the President, but they WILL be held accountable for their actions...
the incivility and outright viciousness of the left toward a president who... deserved better shows that Republican attempts at "kinder and gentler" are just not the answer.
THAT deserves repeating over and over
"Many of those who savaged FordReagan while he was president are now telling us what a fine man he was, claiming that if today's Republican leaders were more like him, Washington politics wouldn't be so strident. It's an old song, and Republicans have tried to dance to it often enough."
And it was there from Tom Brokaw at the funeral, being not so subtle with his digs at W under the guise of praising Ford. Just as with Tootsie Reagan speaking at RR's funeral (Nancy may have been the better wife, but Jane Wyman certainly raised the better children), and the infamous Wellstone escapade, it is the height of poor manners to use a funeral to score political points. It seems that only the left doesn't understand this.
Nice summary. You're absolutely right.
"Many of those who savaged George W. Bush while he was president are now telling us what a fine man he was, claiming that if today's Republican leaders were more like him, Washington politics wouldn't be so strident. It's an old song, and Republicans have tried to dance to it often enough."
You know, it occurred to me recently that it will always be that way. Decency to others is part and parcel of what a conservative is. We don't just try it as a strategy, we live it as part of an honorable life—Some thing that will never, I hope, change.
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