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."
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."
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sour grapes?
Bet it doesn't get as much play as his opposition to the Iraq war.
More proof of how mediocre Ford was. He could get some things right, like seeing how bad Carter was. But many things went completely over his head, like Reagan's genius.
Ford was a middling guy doing a middling job in a middling way.
He flew miles above the Peanut Prez, but miles below Ronald the Great.
Well they sure did a hell of a lot more than Mr. "The Soviet Union doesn't dominate Poland" ever did.
Reason #17829845 to hate the MSM.
.. or just ap wringing every little bit of what they can out of the Ford passing? or both. :-}
He's right. Ronnie didn't know anything about taking lobbyist money and making back room deals. He had his big three ideas and he got them implemented, the rest really didn't matter. Simple, but very effective.
Jimmy Carter was the worst Prez of the 20th century without doubt !!!
Unlike Carter, Ford had some class and kept his opinions about a sitting President to himself. Carter and Clinton have shown absolutely no class whatsoever. That seems to be a trait in Southern Democrat Governors.
LOL. Reagan managed to do a job that allies of the previous President (the aforementioned Carter) argued was just too big for one person. He knew how to ACTUALLY manage, not just how to meddle.
Ford couldn't hold Reagans jock strap.
After all is said and done, in the Presidential pantheon, Gerald was indeed a Ford, not a Lincoln.
Sure, he talked them out of the Cold War at Helsinki. ROFL!
Ford really really disliked Carter, he couldn't fathom having lost an election to such an incompetent. Once they both became ex-Presidents, they started to gravitate toward each other.
Their mutual attitude toward Reagan is akin to that of the runners up in the vote for Homecoming Queen.
Ford never understood the power of ideas and didn't understand how Reagan's rhetoric was as important as the defense buildup. He also totally misunderstood symbolism, especially in 1975 when he and Kissinger refused to meet Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn because it might upset the Kremlin. That was a clear signal to Moscow that the U.S. wouldn't stand up for dissidents.
Ever heard of MCA? That was a backroom deal, if I ever heard one.
M.C.A. was the only talent agency that was allowed to also be a producer through an exemption to union rules granted by S.A.G. when Reagan was the union president, and it used the exemption to acquire Universal International Pictures. Talent agents were not permitted to be producers as there was an inherent conflict of interest between the two professions, one of which was committed to acquiring talent at the lowest possible cost and the other whose focus was to get the best possible price for their client. When a talent agent was also a producer, like M.C.A. was, it had a habit of steering its clients to its own productions, where they were employed but at a lower price than their potential free market value. It was a system that made M.C.A. and Lew Wasserman, enormously wealthy.
And Carter was an Edsel.
Exactly.
An historical footnote's cheap shot at a great man.
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