HIS NAME was dirt after he pardoned Richard Nixon in 1974, but President Gerald R. Ford did it anyway. His approval rating plummeted from 71 percent to 36 percent in less than a year. The unconditional pardon may well have cost Ford his bid to win the White House in 1976, but it is a reason Americans may look at Ford with gratitude and respect in 2006. Consider Ford's example as a lesson in how actions that might seem all wrong in the heat of the moment, can look so right in retrospect. Nixon chose Ford to replace Vice President...