Posted on 01/12/2007 1:45:53 PM PST by NormsRevenge
"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 said Carter "will be looked on as a better president than some comments we hear today."
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Did he speak in several different voices and get into arguments with himself?
Their mutual attitude toward Reagan is akin to that of the runners up in the vote for Homecoming Queen.
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So; what you're saying is that Ford and Carter behaved like a couple of bitchy teen-aged girls?
Volcker created a severe recession early in Reagan's first term. That didn't cure inflation, Reagan's pro-growth, pro-investment, and pro-technology policies did.
Carter was an idiot who promoted a weak dollar, regulated oil and price controls. That's why his misery index went higher while he was president.
Actually, if you know anything about Warren G. Harding, he wasn't that bad. Not nearly as bad as Jimmy Carter.
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."
Jesus Christ, man! Desert One? The Hostage Crisis (capitalized on purpose)? The raging rabbit debacle? The "Malaise" speech? Stagflation? Did Gerald Ford do drugs?
Ford's gave the interviews on the condition that his remarks be withheld until after his death.
I don't blame him. I'd be ashamed to show my face if this got out while I was alive.
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."
I refer you back to 1989 in Berlin. If Reagan did nothing else, he defeated the most dangerous enemy this country had ever had up until the appearance of terrorism (which BTW was started as a global scourge by the Soviets).
Great. We heard ALL ABOUT how he was against the war the minute he died, but no criticism of Carter for a week. No bias there....
I'm growing a bit tired of hearing about things Ford didn't want reported until 'after his death'.
The list seems to be growing.
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I am a little curious as to how dry the ink really is on these "interviews..."
I can say 'Amen' to that.
Let the man rest and don't tarnish him with these comments I'm reading here. RIP President Ford.
....so Ford is allowed to express opinions of others & we are not allowed to express an opinion about him? I don't think so.
Bound to collapse eventually, yes. But just like a 30 solar mass star that goes super nova, it might have let out a last gasp that would have taken a few western nations with it. Reagan's build-up probably hastened the end and certainly kept us and Western Europe safe from any attack that preceded its destined collapse.
It was hardly that alone. Reagan's assault on the Soviet Union was conducted on multiple fronts. Although very important, forcing the Soviets into a debilitating arms race was only aspect of Reagan's attack. Other elements were highly innovative, or at least unique in comparison to all previous administrations.
For example, although previous administrations may have (far too occasionally) criticized the Soviet Union's human rights record, and it was a previous administration (indeed Ford's) that negotiated the Helsinki accords, no previous administration even began to exploit the Human Rights elements therein to deligitimize Soviet rule and empower internal dissidents. But this was a major focus of Reagan's strategy. It was during the Reagan administration that the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights was established. Reagan, and others in the administration, were continually naming, and thereby empowering, Soviet dissidents.
Another thing that no previous administration did was to seriously -- and accurately, which required making this an intelligence priority -- analyze the Soviet economy. This effort was led by Reagan's CIA director, William Casey, who had innovated in the conduct of "economic warfare" against Nazi Germany as an OSI officer during Word War II.
Casey discovered that the Soviet economy was far weaker than intelligence analysts and previously presumed, and more importantly he identified it's weakest link: a severe shortage of hard currency.
The CIA, and the Reagan administration generally, then made exacerbating this crisis a high priority, principally focusing on oil which was the Soviets' most important hard currency generating export. For instance they denied the Soviets crucial hard-rock drilling technology that would have enabled the exploitation of otherwise lucrative oil deposits, and the administration undermined an oil pipeline deal that would have brought Soviet oil directly to Western Europe.
I'm old enough to remember the Kennedy years, the years the media labeled Camelot.
My opinion of Kennedy reflects Ford's opinion of Kennedy precisely.
Ford took a relatively good economy into the toilet and Carter finished the job by flushing it into the sewer.
Ford has confirmed my suspicions that he was not too bright. You know the old saying, it is better to keep silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and confirm it. Ford has confirmed it. Too bad.
Moon:
You needed BOTH monetary & tax policies working in concert. Reagan's tax cuts injected much needed capital into the economy. The reason it wasn't inflationary -- as Dems feared it would be -- was because that dragon had largely been slain by the tight-money policies under Volcker.
Just an aside: Isn't it interesting that the Government basically subs-out monetary policy while jealously guarding tax policy? It has made congress the playground for the irresponsible (they hope that saner heads will prevail over at the Fed). What would Congress look like if it, and not some politically unaccountable group, managed our monetary policy?
Exactly, Sam.
WRONG. Volcker's tight money policy was part and parcel of Reaganism. Volker's policy WAS Reagan's policy, and essential element of his "Supply Side" economics. BTW, Reagan and Volker (and supply side economists) knew that wringing inflation out of the economy would produce a short term recession. This was predictable but necessary.
Any trained monkey could do that.
Yes--sour grapes. [How did Ford have any knowledge of how well informed Reagan was?] Ford will be forgotten--except for being unelected and then pardoning Nixon.
Like most everyone else, Ford missed one of Reagan's most successful attacks against the Soviet Union. An economic war that sucked the strength from their economy like a vampire.
Reagan insisted on it, and was roundly criticized at the time for doing it. Only he realized its devastating impact on their ability to wage Cold War with the US.
Wheat. He directed that every bit of grain that American agribusiness could sell to the Soviet Union, they should.
Because that was their Achilles heel. They could never grow enough grain to both feed themselves and feed their farm animals, the vast number of animals they used for labor on their inefficient farms.
They were always too paranoid to eat our grain, but they would give it to their animals, and divert their Soviet grown fodder to feed their people.
But our grain was very expensive. Every drop of oil they could produce was sold to the US. Then all the gold they owned, then all the new gold they could dredge from their river deltas. Then even all their foreign currency. ALL OF IT had to go to pay for our wheat.
They had no money left, and yet wanted ever more US wheat.
That was the first punch of the "one-two knockout punch."
When the Soviets were totally bankrupt, THEN he announced the SDI. "Star Wars". The US *easily* throwing a trillion dollars at a missile defense system, like it was water.
In the Kremlin, it was heartbreaking. They had laid their last dollar on the table, then Reagan raised them another thousand dollars. Pay up, or fold.
And they folded. They were bust.
And it was all Reagan's doing. He should get credit for it, as after the fact, it is obvious as heck.
Reagan skunked the democrats, and he skunked the Soviets.
He was the greatest of all Cold Warriors.
Sounds from most of the posts here that the mourning period is over for Ford. No longer "The President Who Healed the Country", now he's back to being just "President Middling". Hey, don't knock him just for disliking Reagan's managerial skills; he had to try and find something to make himself sound preferable to Reagan, just for his own ego's sake. And he was a good president, particularly given the time.
Gerald Ford was a caretaker President, at best. Ford was not a conservative, but closer to a Rockefeller Republican. Proudly pro-choice!... AKA. FOR abortion on demand. Ford was a loser. Period. Few men have ever had what it took to be POTUS. Ford wasn't smart enough to realize he didn't have what it took to lead America.
After Kennedy was killed, LBJ retired in disgrace, Nixon resigned in disgrace and Ford disgraced himself by allowing Jimmah Carter to beat him. Carter of course was the biggest disgrace to sit in the Oval Office during the 20th century. Maybe the worst POTUS ever!
Obviously, Gerald Ford was extermely jealous of Ronald Reagan. Most liberals are. We can see that in his after death remarks now being published. Reagan came within 60 votes of winning the GOP nominee at the 1976 GOP convention. Ford should have stepped aside and allowed Reagan a clean shot at the peanut farmer. I'm confident that Reagan would have beaten Carter. Reagan changed America and the world for a generation. Ford played golf for the last 30 years and not much more.
Wonder if that's that point made by Lynrd Skynrd (sp?) in their song "Working For MCA"? Can't remember all the details but they seemed less than thrilled by the prospect.
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