Posted on 01/12/2007 1:45:53 PM PST by NormsRevenge
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - In 25 years of interviews with his hometown paper that could only be released upon his death, former President Ford once called Jimmy Carter a "disaster" who ranked alongside Warren Harding, and said Ronald Reagan received far too much credit for ending the Cold War.
"It makes me very irritated when Reagan's people pound their chests and say that because we had this big military buildup, the Kremlin collapsed," Ford told The Grand Rapids Press.
The best president of his lifetime, Ford said, was a more moderate Republican: Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Harry Truman "would get very high marks" for his handling of foreign crises, Ford said. He also praised Richard Nixon as a foreign policy master, despite the Watergate scandal that drove him from office.
Ford considered John F. Kennedy overrated and Bill Clinton average. He admired George H.W. Bush's handling of the Persian Gulf War and had mixed opinions of Carter, who defeated Ford in 1976.
In 1981, Ford said: "I think Jimmy Carter would be very close to Warren G. Harding. I feel very strongly that Jimmy Carter was a disaster, particularly domestically and economically. I have said more than once that he was certainly the poorest president in my lifetime."
But two years later, he praised Carter's performance on the Panama Canal treaty, China and the Middle East. And in 1998, he said Carter "will be looked on as a better president than some comments we hear today."
"He was a very decent, fine individual," Ford told the paper. "There were no major mistakes. There just weren't a lot of exciting results."
Ford's gave the interviews on the condition that his remarks be withheld until after his death.
According to the newspaper, Ford declined to rate George W. Bush, saying he did not know him well enough.
Ford said Reagan, who challenged him unsuccessfully for the GOP nomination in 1976, was "a great spokesman for attractive political objectives" such as a balanced budget and defeating communism, "but when it came to implementation, his record never matched his words."
Reagan was "probably the least well-informed on the details of running the government of any president I knew," Ford said. In a separate interview, he said Reagan "was just a poor manager, and you can't be president and do a good job unless you manage."
Ford contended his own negotiation of the Helsinki accords on human rights did more to win the Cold War than Reagan's military buildup. Other key factors were the Marshall Plan that helped rebuild Europe after World War II and the establishment of NATO, he said.
"When you put peace, prosperity and human rights against poverty, a massive unsuccessful military program and a lack of human rights, communism was bound to collapse," he said. "No president, no Democrat or Republican, can claim credit for those programs. I'll tell you who deserves the credit the American people."
This 23 September 1976 file photo shows then US president Gerald R. Ford (R) with Jimmy Carter (L) during their first televised debate in Phildelphia, PA. Ford, who became president on August 9, 1974 after Richard Nixon resigned following the Watergate wiretapping scandal, died Tuesday, his office in Rancho Mirage, California, reported. He was 93.(AFP/Library of Congress)
I've looked at many periods of inflation in this country and others. None of them have been caused by tax cuts. If you know of one please let me know.
Ford's political observations are not always so great. For example, in 1984 I saw Gerald Ford speak when I was a student at Ohio State and he told us that he thought the 1984 presidential election would be very close.
I never seem to get tired of typing...
Jimmy Carter:
WORST.
PRESIDENT.
EVER.
Say It Ain't So, Jimmy
http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12136206&postID=116863957482143750
Say It Ain't So, Jimmy
http://fallbackbelmont.blogspot.com/2007/01/say-it-aint-so-jimmy.html
You need to dig up a photo of a burnt-out Pinto after a rear-end collision for the comparison.
We can blame Carter for Chavez raping Venezuala
Exactly. As the funeral progressed the media wanted to talk about Iraq. It was pathetic.
It's obviously sour grapes---Reagan is the one President in my lifetime who people who dismissed him at first come to re-evaluate as far better, and smarter than they originally thought he was. I for one am glad the endless Ford eulogizing is over---the constant theme that was struck was "decency", which should be a starting point for a President, not the entire resume.
That's a ubiquitous quote regarding Carter, and perhaps the one with the least truth. He was not and is not a "good man" as far as I'm concerned. He's a failure who loves to take potshots at good people. He claims Christianity while taking incredibly abiblical stances. If I had to sum him up, I think I'd call him a bitter pretender whose soul appears to be black with rot.
MM
Carter and Clinton are democrats...the classless party.
Well ... DUH! ... I'll say it while I'm alive!
And there lies Ford's problems.
Americans don't want a manager for President. They want a leader and Reagan was a leader.
How in hell can you put Nixon's name in the middle of those mental Giants? Nixon was guilty of bad decision making, no more no less. LBJ was a fool by any standards while Carter flat out hates America.
Frankly, I see little difference in swipes at people before or after someone's death. Ford just had to get his last oar in, didn't he, even from the grave.
Why can't these presidents retire, live quietly and gracefully and kick the bucket without making egotistical comments before and after the eternal rest for a ravenous press and politicians to kick around.
I can hardly wait to see what the rancourous, bitter Jimmy Carter will leave on tape and paper.
Retire and shuddup.
Leni
"Aside from winning 6 NBA championships in 8 years, Michael Jordan's contributions to the sport of basketball were unremarkable."
- Your analogy (and sarcasm) doesn't work because international political achievements and domestic ones are not like two games of basketball, each with the same rules.
However, I do recall that Michael Jordan did attempt to switch from basketball to baseball. While he was outstanding in basketball, his achievements in baseball can safely be described as, "unremarkable".
Now is it clearer?
vERY VERY SOUR GRAPES.
The left is doing what they always do, the are claiming the dead in order to attack the living.
Night of the Revisionist History Zombies.
=you too will believe the corpse of dead president Ford has been zombified and chasing tv cameras in order to say "G W Bush baaaaad!!!!" as it does its zombie walk.
I shed tears at President Reagan's funeral, but none at President Ford's. Makes one wonder why, doesn't it? Rest in peace, Presidents Reagan and Ford, and God bless.
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