I saw him speak once. In Pasadena. I was a junior in high school, due to turn 18 on November 2, 1976 -- election day. So I was permitted to cut school and go watch him stump for the California Republicans. I came from a diehard Democratic family, but it didn't matter. I was and would remain an enormous personal fan of Gerald R. Ford. I fear that he was the last of a dying breed -- a moderate, good man who loved and listened to his beloved, opinionated and outspoken wife, adored his progressive, adventurous children, though he did not always understand their choices, and made his Presidential decisions based on what he believed in his heart and his soul was right, and not necessarily what was politically strategic or polemically advantageous. And did I mention that he was dead handsome standing at that podium, the warm spring sun beating down on his tanned forehead, glinting off his thinning blonde hair. Hey, I was 17. I noticed. So sue me.
The thing that came across always about Gerald Ford, in person and on television, was the word that everyone uses about him -- decency. He was nice guy. A decent guy, who didn't have a mean bone in his body. He was honest and good and he tried always to do the right thing, even when the right thing would, he knew, get him into hot water. Like pardoning a former president whom almost everyone wanted to see hung out to dry. It has been speculated that, with a 75% approval rating in August of '74, Ford might have thought he could coast through the firestorm. But in interview after interview given between 1975 and his last in 2003, Ford was clear that he knew full well he'd be reviled for his decision at the time. He knew it might cost him re-election, and he also knew it was something he had to do, for the good of the nation.
In hindsight, of course, most of us would now agree with him, regardless of how violently we opposed Nixon's pardon at the time. Nothing was more exculpatory for Ford than the Clinton impeachment hearings. They nearly tore this country to bits, and they were only over a lie told about a blowjob in the West Wing. It is difficult to imagine, given what state we were in after months and months of televised Watergate hearings, how we would have survived the several months of testimony in a Nixon criminal trial, and still emerged with our democracy, let alone our sanity, intact. Moving on, Ford concluded, was the only correct solution. Let Nixon go be Nixon in San Clemente.
A day short of one month earlier, Ford had proclaimed the "our long national nightmare is over." On the day he pardoned Nixon, he said simply, "My conscience tells me clearly and certainly that I cannot prolong the bad dreams that continue to reopen a chapter that is closed. My conscience tells me that only I, as President, have the constitutional power to firmly shut and seal this book." People screamed bloody murder.
The thing that came across always about Gerald Ford, in person and on television, was the word that everyone uses about him -- decency. He was nice guy. A decent guy, who didn't have a mean bone in his body. He was honest and good and he tried always to do the right thing, even when the right thing would, he knew, get him into hot water. Like pardoning a former president whom almost everyone wanted to see hung out to dry. It has been speculated that, with a 75% approval rating in August of '74, Ford might have thought he could coast through the firestorm. But in interview after interview given between 1975 and his last in 2003, Ford was clear that he knew full well he'd be reviled for his decision at the time. He knew it might cost him re-election, and he also knew it was something he had to do, for the good of the nation.
In hindsight, of course, most of us would now agree with him, regardless of how violently we opposed Nixon's pardon at the time. Nothing was more exculpatory for Ford than the Clinton impeachment hearings. They nearly tore this country to bits, and they were only over a lie told about a blowjob in the West Wing. It is difficult to imagine, given what state we were in after months and months of televised Watergate hearings, how we would have survived the several months of testimony in a Nixon criminal trial, and still emerged with our democracy, let alone our sanity, intact. Moving on, Ford concluded, was the only correct solution. Let Nixon go be Nixon in San Clemente.
A day short of one month earlier, Ford had proclaimed the "our long national nightmare is over." On the day he pardoned Nixon, he said simply, "My conscience tells me clearly and certainly that I cannot prolong the bad dreams that continue to reopen a chapter that is closed. My conscience tells me that only I, as President, have the constitutional power to firmly shut and seal this book." People screamed bloody murder.
Senator Ted Kennedy said at the time that Nixon's pardon would lead "many Americans to believe it was a culmination of the Watergate cover-up." By 2001, however, Kennedy had changed his tune from castigating to apologetic. On the day in May of that year that he and his neice, Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, presented former President Ford with the John F. Kennedy Profiles in Courage Award, the Massachussetts senator said that because of the pardon decision, "which was differed with by great numbers of Americans including myself, America was able to heal itself and move back to the path of reconciliation. It was an extraordinary act of courage that historians recognize today was truly in the national interest." Schlossberg said of him, "As President, he made a controversial decision of conscience to pardon former President Nixon and end the national trauma of Watergate. In doing so, he placed his love of country ahead of his own political future."
It is so hard for me to recall when any president, let alone a Republican, acted "truly in the American interest" or placed "his love of country ahead of his own political future." Ford was the last of the moderate Republicans, the last Republican who campaigned on a pro-choice platform, and the only President I think we've ever seen in my lifetime who had a real marriage to a real woman. The election on November 2, 1976, between two of the most moderate, most decent, most honorable men in history (though probably two of the personally dullest), was one of the closest counts in American history. Ford lost, but only just barely.
It is so hard for me to recall when any president, let alone a Republican, acted "truly in the American interest" or placed "his love of country ahead of his own political future." Ford was the last of the moderate Republicans, the last Republican who campaigned on a pro-choice platform, and the only President I think we've ever seen in my lifetime who had a real marriage to a real woman. The election on November 2, 1976, between two of the most moderate, most decent, most honorable men in history (though probably two of the personally dullest), was one of the closest counts in American history. Ford lost, but only just barely.
Yesterday, the day after Christmas, thirty-four years to the day after the death of another plain-spoken, decent guy who was radically underestimated as president, Harry S. Truman, Gerald R. Ford succumbed to what had become a succession of illnesses. He was 93. He was a husband, father, grandfather and greatgrandfather. He was an avid golfer and pipe smoker. He loved football and once told Larry King that he didn't regret turning down the three NFL teams that were recruiting him so that he could attend Yale's School of Law, but he did sort of wish he could have played for one season, just to know that he could do it. He was beloved by his Congressional cohorts on both sides of the aisle. He was, in the words of his daughter, Susan, "a nice guy."
He will be missed by all. But that his death comes now, at this time, could be considered propicious. Maybe he's thrust back into the limelight to remind us that once, not so very long ago, there was such a thing as bipartisanship. Once, a man could be God-loving without being a theocrat. Once, a man could make decisions based not on personal gain or self-agrandisement, not on the acquisition of power, but merely on what he believed in his heart of hearts was best for his country, and for his people.
If he left us no other legacy, he left us this.
Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr.
1913-2006
"In vain do they talk of happiness who never subdued
an impulse in obedience to a principle.
He who never sacrificed a present to a future good,
or a personal to a general one, can speak of
happiness only as the blind speak of color."
~Horace Mann~
~C~
As I predicted back in September