We were ticked off in 1976 because of the Ford/Reagan battle. It was a pier nine brawl, with Ford taking uncommitted delegates on plane rides using Air Force One. He barely squeaked through, after insulting Reagan supporters all spring and summer.
Ford was a McCain. His appointments, such as Nelson Rockefeller and John Paul Stevens were uniformly awful. Ford was for abortion and the Equal Rights Amendment. He was one wretched candidate. There was no difference between him and Carter. But I don’t recall the word “Nixon” coming up once that year. That’s all retrospect. The issue of a pardon was never discussed in the debates.
I remember a lot of people at the time being upset with him for pardoning Nixon, and not all Dems. It may not have come up in the debates, but it was an issue. That and Jerry’s inability to figure out where Poland was. Hey, maybe he and Obama can get together. Between them, one knows what language is spoken in Afghanistan, and the other probably knows where Poland is!