US presidents are not kings. A criminal president’s abdication does not serve justice. Ford’s pardon freed Nixon. Ick.
“Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.”
-Diderot
I’m pretty sure that if the SDMB had been around in Ford’s day, he would have been ripped to shreds on a regular basis. Time is the great healer, indeed. If the SDMB is still around in 40 years’ time, maybe there will even be people saying the odd nice thing about Trump, although it’s difficult to imagine what, right now.
Most people define a “good president,” by end results. Whether Carter or Ford, outcomes would have been too similar to make a comparison. The world oil market price and Fed’s monetary policies ensured worldwide stagflation and the accompanying pain and suffering that it brought, regardless of who sat in the oval office.
The positive re-evaluation of Trump, if it occurs, is likely to be occasioned by an even worse president coming after him, the way Bush43 is now being positively re-evaluated and Ford being praised.
I agree; no doubt he would be. But I’d argue that would be more a function of the left learning Straight Dope, more than a universal feeling of the nation at large.
You might have a point there.
IF Court TV had existed in 1974 (it didn’t). Any investigations required for an indictment would have been conducted by a Grand Jury, behind closed doors. As would any trial (ETA: with the exception of whatever press access to the inside of ocourtrooms was in the Seventies).
Ford was 25 years house minority leader.
American presidents with good house experience have the reputation of achieving more in presidency.
I liked Ford. I’ve always liked the line: “No man who wants to be president should be trusted with the job”, and Ford struck me as the kind of person who would just do the job, without getting butt-hurt by opposition or compromised by fear of loosing.
But I think Carter was ineffective, and didn’t achieve much. Unlike say, GW Bush. So perhaps I should be thankful for small mercies.
I was going to ask for a cite but I turned my lazy fingers to the keyboard and found this list of presidents of the United States by previous experience. One, Polk, responsible for the greatest US territorial expansion, had been Speaker of the House. Two, Garfield and Ford, neither very effective as presidents, were party leaders of the House. Quite a few had been in the House (18), Senate (16), or state legislatures (??), but AFAIK few had held leadership posts, Lyndon Johnson being the highlight. After their presidencies, JQ Adams served in the House and Tyler in the Confederate House.
I’m not sure those numbers tell of effectiveness. So Melbourne, have you a cite?
One of my favorite declassified papers of Nixon was when he wrote to House Minority Leader Ford for a list of recommendations for Vice President following Agnew’s resignation. Ford listed four names: John Connally, Mel Laird, Nelson Rockerfeller and Ronald Reagan. Nixon of course ignored them and offered the job to Ford himself. The rest is history.
As opposed to when G. W. Bush asked Cheney for a similar list, and Cheney’s list contained one name.
Nelly did get the veep post after Ford’s ascension, tho.
It just occurred to me: If Nixon had selected a medium-to-high profile Democrat to replace Agnew, would Goldwater have shown up at his door ten months later to tell him that there were enough (R) votes in the Senate to remove him?
I don’t think many people are now positively re-evaluating George W. Bush. The people saying Trump is worse aren’t implying that Bush is good.
The story I’ve heard is that one of the names on the short list was George H.W. Bush, who could have ended up becoming President fifteen years earlier than he historically did.
Would have been ironic alternate history. Bush resigned his seat in the House of Representatives to run for the Texas Senate seat in 1970. To go from that to assuming the presidency four years later would have been remarkable. Especially because the man who beat him for the senate seat was none other than Lloyd Bentsen - the man who would be on the Democratic ticket running against Bush in 1988.
And by the way if you’re interested in Ford there’s two books that I’d recommend. The first is called “Write it When I’m Gone”. This book is written by a journalist named Thomas DeFrank who covered Ford from when he became Vice President. Ford said something loose during a conversation and swore the young journalist to hold off publishing it/making it off-the-record. In return Ford turned to DeFrank during the remainder of his vice presidency, his presidency and his post-presidency as his soundboard if you will to share his thoughts and opinions that could be published, as the title suggests, when he was gone. The book mainly covers the post-presidency as that was when Ford was able to be most open and have the shackles removed but it’s interesting to get an insight into the mind of a man who was President of the United States reflect on his time in office and how his successors were doing, certain individuals who worked for him (coughCheney*cough) and generally his outlook on the world that he no longer had influence over.
The second book is a collection of the popular 20th century historian and commentator Arthur Schlesinger Jr’s journal covering the second half of the century. He was a staunch liberal and close friends with John F Kennedy, as well as professionally close to other people in high positions of powers. His writings give an academic’s insight into a revolutionary and chaotic period of American and global political history. There’s lots of great stories and anecdotes in this. One story stands out that at the assassinated Egyptian President Anwar Sadat’s funeral, the three living former US presidents Nixon, Ford and Carter were sent as the US delegation as they all had worked with Sadat and considered him an ally and friend (Reagan was just recently elected). Kissinger was also there. Now according to the story this was the trip where Ford and Carter’s unique presidential friendship started and brought two former rivals and their families together. Nixon however kept a distance during the long flight and ceremony. It was in the formal dinner held later however that Nixon started chirping up to impress the foreign delegations. Schlesinger via Kissinger, wrote some of his brashness so disturbed Ford to the point Ford remarked “sometimes I wish I never pardoned that son of a bitch”
Just seemed liked a good time to completely make something up with no basis in reality to swipe at Bush and Cheney as republicans in a thread that had absolutely nothing to do with them?
Well, relatively good, which may not be all that good.