Gerald Ford: 1913 - 2006
Dec. 27th, 2006 10:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feste_sylvainIn 1976, I worked on the Ford re-election campaign. I hadn't heard of this Bob Dole guy he'd chosen as a running mate, but I knew that the Democrat Congress was going to try to roll out every bill they'd left sitting around since Nixon deposed Johnson, and I knew that a check on that was needed.
And Ford was a check. He vetoed. He vetoed all sorts of stuff. Many of his vetos were overridden, but that just meant that Congress had to spend time on stuff they really wanted, instead of the next porkfest. I admired that. <rummage/>: Here it is: Ford vetoed 66 bills, 12 of which were overturned. By contrast, our current holder of the Oval Office has vetoed 1 bill.
Many people chastized or even damned Ford for pardonning Nixon, but not me. Oh, not because I believed that Tricky Dick deserved a walk; more that I believed that a lynch-mob was not going to do the country any favors. There's a reason why Jimmy Carter never made that a campaign issue in 1976: Carter even thanked Ford for doing it in his inauguration speech.
What I did quail about Ford was his choice (and possibly not his choice) for vice president: Nelson Rockefeller. The Anti-Goldwater. The closest thing to a political royalist we've seen in our history since Alexander Hamilton. I may not have known Bob Dole when Ford chose him as his running mate, but I knew that he wasn't Nelson Rockefeller.
Despite his personal athletic history (including being a college football player), he got a reputation for being a klutz. Much of this was because Ford was a big man, bigger than the rooms and furniture he was in. And much of this was because, unlike Nixon, when Ford stumbled he never tried to keep it out of the press.
Ford was unable to reverse Nixonomics; indeed, he may not even have been capable of it. But he was a pro-choice Republican, back when that combination didn't raise eyebrows. (And many forget that his successor was an anti-choice Democrat.) Unlike Goldwater, his positions weren't based on a bedrock of principle. But he had principles, and he mostly kept to them.
Our country would be much better off if typical Republicans were like Gerald Ford.
And Ford was a check. He vetoed. He vetoed all sorts of stuff. Many of his vetos were overridden, but that just meant that Congress had to spend time on stuff they really wanted, instead of the next porkfest. I admired that. <rummage/>: Here it is: Ford vetoed 66 bills, 12 of which were overturned. By contrast, our current holder of the Oval Office has vetoed 1 bill.
Many people chastized or even damned Ford for pardonning Nixon, but not me. Oh, not because I believed that Tricky Dick deserved a walk; more that I believed that a lynch-mob was not going to do the country any favors. There's a reason why Jimmy Carter never made that a campaign issue in 1976: Carter even thanked Ford for doing it in his inauguration speech.
What I did quail about Ford was his choice (and possibly not his choice) for vice president: Nelson Rockefeller. The Anti-Goldwater. The closest thing to a political royalist we've seen in our history since Alexander Hamilton. I may not have known Bob Dole when Ford chose him as his running mate, but I knew that he wasn't Nelson Rockefeller.
Despite his personal athletic history (including being a college football player), he got a reputation for being a klutz. Much of this was because Ford was a big man, bigger than the rooms and furniture he was in. And much of this was because, unlike Nixon, when Ford stumbled he never tried to keep it out of the press.
Ford was unable to reverse Nixonomics; indeed, he may not even have been capable of it. But he was a pro-choice Republican, back when that combination didn't raise eyebrows. (And many forget that his successor was an anti-choice Democrat.) Unlike Goldwater, his positions weren't based on a bedrock of principle. But he had principles, and he mostly kept to them.
Our country would be much better off if typical Republicans were like Gerald Ford.
