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| President Ford: history dealt him a weak hand; he played it well. |
| 2006-12-28 |
| Wall Street Journal house editorial The abiding cliché about Gerald Ford--who died Tuesday at age 93--is that he was a decent man who steadied the country but held the White House too briefly to leave a major imprint. We've always thought that view of his Presidency is too diminishing, not least because he led the nation at a dangerous time and resisted political furies that could have done the U.S. far more harm. "America's Suicide Attempt" is how the historian Paul Johnson describes the 1970s. And it is important to recall the bad temper of the times that Ford inherited in becoming the 38th President. He succeeded Richard Nixon, who had resigned over the Watergate coverup and amid an unpopular war in Vietnam. He faced large liberal majorities in Congress that were emboldened by their ouster of Nixon and set to revive the Great Society. And he had to clean up the financial problems caused by a burst of inflation and wage and price controls. Ford navigated all of these traumas better than he gets credit for. . . . |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #3 I don't know about all of that. First, as the sitting (if unelected) President, Ford didn't have any obligation to step aside for Reagan. Calling his decision to run hubris is a stretch. I remember both of those elections, and the '76 general election would have been no slam dunk for RR. It may be hard to believe or remember now, but 30 years ago lots of people didn't think Reagan was either bright enough or tempramentally well suited for the Presidency. Watergate was still a very recent memory, and after 8 years the country tends to get a little itchy for a party change in White House anyway By 1980, four years of Jimmy Carter made almost anybody looked like an improvement, so voters were more willing to take the chance. Ford's decision to run may not have delayed the Reagan presidency, it may have made it possible. |
| Posted by: Unusing Glinelet5004 2006-12-28 19:02 |
| #2 Don't forget John Paul Stevens, A gift that is still giving. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2006-12-28 11:27 |
| #1 His hubris was the office. Instead of accepting the stewardship, he too was corrupted by the power. [One ring to rule them all]. Those of us old enough to remember, he had a primary challenger for the '76 election, Ronald Reagan. Had he chosen not to run, the likelihood that Ronald would have been in office four years earlier and the Shah would have had the backing he needed and the Islamic terror campaign would have been limited to the small anti-regime cells that existed before. Wonder if the Soviets would have contemplated their Afghan adventure if Ronnie was in office? Decent guy, but as the song says Â…know when to fold them. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2006-12-28 09:00 |