Gerald Ford - remembering Jerry

[JackFTwist]

I live in Gerald Ford country - just two months ago I was a meeting at his presidential library - and we are swamped in Jerry Ford tributes today.

Jerry Ford was:
-a good human being, a nice person

-a cunning politican who ousted an incumbent in a primary to win his first House election and ousted Minority Leader Charles Hallock to become minority leader himself

-an excellent athlete, almost were pro in football

-a die hard Michigan fan

-married to a wonderful woman, perhaps as a child of divorce himself, he married a divorced woman in a day when that was most uncommon (although he kept the engagement to Betty a secret until after election day)

-was an affable person and a shrewd politician who definitely shewered to the right - wanted to impeach William Douglas on the grounds that "grounds for impeachment are whatever we say they are"

-made great long national nightmare being over comment when he got sworn in

-should have waited to pardon Nixon until after Nixon got convicted - no one wanted a former president in jail but the judicia; process should have run its course (remember his own press secretary Jerry terHorst resigned in protest and he did it on a Sunday morning, slow news day, maybe thinking we wouldn't notice?)

-great plan for fighting inflation: wear buttons that said WIN (whip inflation now)

-vetoed 66 bills in 2 plus years, fought with Congress and not much got down

-was really hurt in 1976 because Ronald Reagan battled him for the nomination down to the wire rather than let Ford get ready for the fall campaign

-was a decent man, not totally honest on the "was there discussion of a pardon before the resignation" thing but was a decent mad and as Jimmy Carter said in his inaugueral, Ford deserved our thanks

Jerry Ford was probably what we needed after Nixon. I was glad he was defeated, but I can have no hostility to the man, for he was probably as decent as they come and for that I will remember him not with hostility nor with unadorned love, but with respect for a good man who found himself in a tough place and get us on the right road again

 

[ronboy]

For a man who was never elected to the offices of Vice President or President, he did a pretty good job with both. I hope that history remembers him as the man who had the task of bringing a peacetime, but scandal weary America back together again.

RIP Mr. President....

 

[Kulindahr]

I liked what George Will called him in an interview tonight -- a prozac president who calmed America and got the country to move on.

I know I was alive then, but I don't remember him. My only memory of him is when a cousin took me skiing in Colorado, and when we prepared to head down one medium slope, our instructor mused, "One day when I was first here, the only people on this slope were Gerald Ford and a bunch of Secret Service". So I skied where a president did.
I imagine he tooks slopes smoothly -- all the tributes I heard today described his presidency as going smoothly.

RIP Gerald Ford -- a better man than any the Republicans have now

 

[JackFTwist]

bumping this because it was a nice thread on Ford


Jerry and I actually corresponded a lot in the 60s. Life was slower then. He was a very nice man. He was wrong on viet nam and many other things. But he was a decent man, a good man, and the only president from Michigan that we ever had - and no one ever voted for him. Odd, that.

 

[tommyj]

I went out of my way last month to visit the Ford Museum in Grand Rapids. A very good man and the right guy to serve at that time. BTW, I loved Grand Rapids. Hope to stay in that new Marriott someday! Also loved eating at the Sundance Grille. Actually I was just into my teens when Ford was prez. I had the biggest crush on his son, Steven!

 

[Kulindahr]

Just think -- you could have been the "first boyfriend", kinda like "first lady".

 

[tommyj]

Just think -- you could have been the "first boyfriend", kinda like "first lady".

I think I was a little young by five years for him!

 

[White Eagle]

It took me awhile to decide to write this post. But I am gonna do it anyway.

bush decided it was not necessary to be in DC to receive Ford to the Capitol. He sent cheney in his place. I find this disturbing. He will not return to DC til Monday.
I hope this means he is diligently working on a solution to Iraq.

 

[Centexfarmer]

A good friend of mine were talking the other day when we got news that Gerald Ford had passed.

The political atmosphere wasn't nearly as "partisan" then as it is today, but we debated Ford's Presidential pardon for Nixon.

I was in elementary school then, and Watergate was on the news everynight. There we so many other things going on in our country at the time, and so many things to be done.

In retrospect, we were hard pressed to believe that our nation could have stood a criminal trial for Nixon.

In a way I wonder how different things would be for our Executive Branch, if Nixon had been made to answer any criminal charges.

Ford was the man who bridged the gap, and through his efforts probably saved our Republic.

For that, as Americans, we owe him our gratitude.

 

[JackFTwist]

I will always believe that Ford was not totally forthcoming on the pardon issue - Haig had raised it with Ford a week before the resignation - all Ford ever said was that no deal was made, which leaves a lot of room for a wink-wink no deal agreement -

and it was wrong, Nixon should have been convicted, and then pardoned - he didn't need to go to jail but he needed to be convicted

there are good things to say for Ford and not so good things as president and politician, he certainly was a decent human being and a good person

it is outrageous that Bush is not going to meet Mrs Ford when she arrives with the body in DC, that is about the most detestable breach of protocol that asshole can do

 

[White Eagle]

What can I say Jack.
I wasn't sure of the protocol but it looked wrong to me. After all Ford was a republican. bush has no compassion, but I already knew that.
I'm beginning to think not a day can go by that he doesn't show his ass in some way.

 

[JackFTwist]

You can imagine that if George Bush 1 died and President Gore did not go meet Barbara Bush and the body as it arrived in DC what outrage we would have heard from the conservatives.

There are only so many former presidents alive at any time. Clinton showed Nixon proper respect. There are just some things that you do because they are right.

But for a man whos at and did nothing when told bin laden wanted to attack the US,
for a man who sat and did nothing when the planes hit the WTC,
for a man who did nothing - oh, I am sorry, for a man who took guitar lessons while the levees broke,
what the hell do we expect from the bastard.
for a man who sat and did nothing

 

[Kulindahr]

I got home and saw Cheney on the tube, speaking at Ford's funeral. My first thought was, "What an insult!" Then it was, "Where the frak is Bush?"

But maybe it was appropriate, in an odd way: Bush doesn't deserve to even be in the same room as that coffin. He's had some fine moments, but overall, I think Ford is a better president right now than Bush could ever be.

 

[MassRuss]

It took me awhile to decide to write this post. But I am gonna do it anyway.

bush decided it was not necessary to be in DC to receive Ford to the Capitol. He sent cheney in his place. I find this disturbing. He will not return to DC til Monday.
I hope this means he is diligently working on a solution to Iraq.

Cheney wasn't sent in W's place. Cheney was a requested honorary pallbearer, requested by Mrs. Ford, it was in the late president's wishes.

As far as diligently working on a solution to Iraq, Saddam is working harder, & he's dead.

 

[White Eagle]

^^My mistake. It just pissed me off and it doesn't change anything. bush should have been there!!! I wrote that during the event at the capitol last nite.
Love the last sentence. you r right about that.

 

[fajack]

Not liking Bush, I thought I was overreacting by being ticked off that he couldn't cut short his vacation to be in Washington to receive Ford. Glad to hear there are others that feel the same.

 

[White Eagle]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16412093/

Many no-shows for Ford’s funeral service
Statesman in short supply at Capitol
By Dana Milbank

Updated: 12:41 a.m. CT Dec 31, 2006
The military band drilled. Wreaths with white roses hung outside the House and Senate chambers. In the Capitol Rotunda rested the black velvet catafalque that once bore the remains of Abraham Lincoln.

Everything was in place for Gerald R. Ford's state funeral last night -- everything, that is, but the statesmen.

President Bush sent his regrets; he was cutting cedar and riding his bike on his ranch in Texas.

 

[Centexfarmer]

Well, you can bet that if it was an impromptu Republican Fundraiser at $1,000 a plate, Bush would have cut his "vacation" short.

There was a freak storm that came through Central Texas this past week, and word that he got whisked away to a storm shelter.

Sometimes I think that there is no God.

 

[snapcat]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16412093/

That was shocking for me to read! The apparent apathy among most politicians leaves much to be desired, in my opinion.

 

[Kulindahr]

OMG, the Cry Baby Chorus of Cowardly Conservatives would have been wailing, simply flooding the Tidal Basin with their fake sobbery. But, as with everything else in his booze-basted life, the drunkard-in-chief gets a pass. Still, perhaps limp-wristed Bush is still jacking off over the Saddam-snuffing videos... What a country, what a fucked up, uptight, pantywaisted, backwater country we live in! Any decent, self-respecting, proud and vital democracy would have shown that nut the door a long, long time ago.

And this has to do with remembering President Ford... how?

Alfie, this is why I say what I do about you: this post is full of vile, and contributes nothing except maybe to... well, I guess "nothing" is right. It belongs in the "shrill remarks" thread, not here. I say that putting it here is one more effort of yours to disrespect the memory of a man who, in retrospect, did a good job for America.