Gerald Ford: Threat or Menace?

[Little_Nemo]

His thinking in pardoning Nixon was that a criminal trial of a former president would have torn the country apart to an unacceptable degree.

There were other options Ford could have explored. He could have had the CIA kill Nixon. No muss, no fuss. Sure that would have been an illegal abuse of government power - but Nixon would’ve wanted to go that way.

[Clothahump]

@Grumman

The recent thread on the scheduled release of one of his attempted assassins reminded me of something I wanted to ask. As a non-American, I don’t know much about some of your Presidents. One in particular, Gerald Ford, I only know because he pardoned Richard Nixon. In my mind this has always seemed to be an unforgivable atrocity, but I’ve never noticed much vitriol thrown his way.

So tell me, dopers: did the man’s later actions make up for pardoning Nixon? Or was pardoning Nixon not as bad as I’ve always believed?

It wasn’t. In fact, it was a very noble, self-sacrificing act. Ford knew that pardoning Nixon would kill any chance he would ever have of being elected in his own right. He also knew that if he didn’t pardon Nixon, the country would tear itself apart. He did the right thing.

And it’s a crying damn shame things worked out the way they did. I think Ford was a good President and electing him to his own term would have been a damn sight better than the kneejerk election of Jimmy Carter.

[Wendell_Wagner]

For what it’s worth, the usual media image of Ford at the time was that he was a little slow mentally. (Lyndon Johnson had long before said something like, “Ford is a nice guy, but he’s living proof that you shouldn’t play football without a helmet.”) Whether that’s true or not, that image made it easier for him to pardon Nixon, I think. His media image was also that he was clumsy. (Remember the Chevy Chase skits about this.) My memory was that while a lot of people didn’t like the pardon, they considered him to be such a nonentity that they didn’t worry that much about it. A lot of people right from the start of his Presidency thought that he would only be a one-term President. He could get away with things that he did by executive orders, but he didn’t really have that much effect on what Congress did. In the end he didn’t matter much while he was in office.

[Mr.Moto]

@Clothahump

It wasn’t. In fact, it was a very noble, self-sacrificing act. Ford knew that pardoning Nixon would kill any chance he would ever have of being elected in his own right. He also knew that if he didn’t pardon Nixon, the country would tear itself apart. He did the right thing.

And it’s a crying damn shame things worked out the way they did. I think Ford was a good President and electing him to his own term would have been a damn sight better than the kneejerk election of Jimmy Carter.

It wasn’t such a sacrifice as people are making it out to be in this thread - the 1976 election saw Ford win 27 states to Carter’s 23, and 20 states were won by one candidate or the other within five percentage points. Ford had 240 electoral votes and was within striking distance of plenty enough to win.

What lost him the race wasn’t the pardon (which, let’s face it, many voters approved of) but his disastrous remarks about Poland in the second presidential debate.

[Little_Nemo]

It wasn’t. In fact, it was a very noble, self-sacrificing act. Ford knew that pardoning Nixon would kill any chance he would ever have of being elected in his own right. He also knew that if he didn’t pardon Nixon, the country would tear itself apart. He did the right thing.

And it’s a crying damn shame things worked out the way they did. I think Ford was a good President and electing him to his own term would have been a damn sight better than the kneejerk election of Jimmy Carter.

Please. It wouldn’t have torn the nation apart - it would have torn the Republican Party apart. Nixon was pardoned to try put an end to the ongoing scandal.

I do agree that Ford was a better President than Carter was.

[Mr.Moto]

@Wendell_Wagner

He could get away with things that he did by executive orders, but he didn’t really have that much effect on what Congress did. In the end he didn’t matter much while he was in office.

I beg to differ. He issued more vetoes in a shorter time on major legislation than any President before or since - and was able to block override of all but twelve of these through skillful negotiation with members of Congress.

Remember - he had been a congressman for 25 years and Minority Leader for eight. One would assume he would learn a thing or two in decades on the Hill.

[Sampiro]

One thing important to remember about Ford is that he had the shortest administration in history of anybody who actually completed a term. The only ones with a shorter tenure died in office, and even then there were only 4 of them*, with Harding the only one that anybody alive could conceivably have been old enough to vote for or even remember well. Of the 2 1/2 years he served there was the bumpy take off adjustment period (we’d just emerged from Watergate and the Fall of Saigon), then he had to spend time on an election campaign, and then came his lame duck period, so if he’d done anything truly memorable it would have been damned near miraculous.

Mainly he’s known today for the klutziness, but that was far overblown (he was nowhere near as clumsy as his rep, but it happened that there were cameras present at his every move). And for his wife’s mastectomy and her later going public with her alcoholism and opening the rehab that bears her name. And for being the first president to have changed his name (from Leslie R. King to Gerald R. Ford when his mother remarried) but that’s mainly in trivia columns. He’s not really remembered as a great or horrible president either one.

*5 if you count Obama

[Frank]

@Mr.Moto

He issued more vetoes in a shorter time on major legislation than any President before or since - and was able to block override of all but twelve of these through skillful negotiation with members of Congress.

Out of how many vetoes in a shorter time on major legislation were the twelve overridden? Thirteen or one hundred thirteen?

[magellan01]

@Walloon

Ford in 1940.

Maybe our most badass president.

[Siam_Sam]

@Sampiro

The only ones with a shorter tenure died in office, and even then there were only 4 of them* … *5 if you count Obama

Obama’s going to die in office? :eek:

[Mr.Moto]

@Frank

Out of how many vetoes in a shorter time on major legislation were the twelve overridden? Thirteen or one hundred thirteen?

Figures from here:

The 1974 midterm congressional elections, held under the shadow of Watergate, had produced large Democratic gains. The Democratic majority in the House rose to just over the two-thirds needed to pass bills over the President’s veto. The Democratic majority in the Senate, though not quite so overwhelming, was more than enough to dominate legislative business.

Ford’s long experience in Congress and his friendly personal relationships with Democratic leaders in both houses gave him tactical advantages that Nixon had lacked. The bitter antagonism that had developed between Nixon and the Democratic majorities in Congress never took hold under Ford. But fundamental differences over economic policy produced a series of pitched legislative battles.

Ford vetoed more bills relative to time in office, an average of 26.4 a year, than all but three Presidents: Grover Cleveland, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Harry S. Truman. Most of the vetoes by Cleveland, Roosevelt, and Truman, however, had been of private bills, passed at requests by members of Congress to deal with particular problems of individual constituents. All but five of Ford’s sixty-six vetoes were of bills dealing with substantive policy issues.

Many of Ford’s vetoes were delivered against major appropriations bills, passed by the Democratic Congress to counter the deep recession of 1974-1976. Such budget-breaking expenditures, the President argued, would set off a new round of inflation. Other vetoes were used to protect the Executive Powers of the President, under attack after Watergate, and to uphold the administration’s positions in foreign policy and energy policy. Despite the huge Democratic majorities in Congress, Ford, by maintaining relative unity among the Republican minority and shrewd bargaining with approachable Democrats, was able to block attempted overrides of all but twelve of his vetoes.

[Magiver]

@Siam_Sam

Obama’s going to die in office? :eek:

Senator Obama. When you deduct his presidential campaign he wasn’t in office very long.

[Captain_Carrot]

@Magiver

Senator Obama. When you deduct his presidential campaign he wasn’t in office very long.

Wrong. Sampiro’s talking about Obama’s presidential term, and so far he hasn’t been in office long at all.

[Walloon]

@Clothahump

He also knew that if he didn’t pardon Nixon, the country would tear itself apart.

This is the cliché, but I’m surprised that anyone beyond Gerald Ford believes such balderdash.

[Grumman]

@RTFirefly

It would have reaffirmed the principle that nobody is above the law.

We seem to have reached a point where almost everyone in Washington gets vapors at the idea of investigating the Bushies to see if they indeed committed the crimes they appear to have committed, and prosecuting them where the seriousness of the crimes and the strength of the evidence demands it.

This is why I called it what I did. Nixon should have been a reminder to all politicians that the power they wield belongs to the people, not to them. Instead he was proof that with friends in the right places, you can get away with anything.

[Sampiro]

@Captain_Carrot

Wrong. Sampiro’s talking about Obama’s presidential term, and so far he hasn’t been in office long at all.

Right. He’s one of the president’s with a shorter term than Ford’s, but whether to count him since he’s current is arguable, hence the “if you count” him.

[user_hostile]

@Little_Nemo

the Mayaquez capture by North Korea.

It was actually Kampuchea (Cambodia) that captured the Mayaguez in '75. The NORK’s captured the USN Pueblo in '68

I recall during the lame duck of his presidency, he tried get Puerto Rico into the Union. It was front page headlines in the news–then the crickets started chirping.

Puerto Rico–I have not forgotten!!!