RIP Gerald Ford

[ctenidae]

We had one for James Brown...

Tough job to get when you don't really want it, particularly under those circumstances.

 

[Marc]

This doesn't mean I'm not going to laugh at the Dana Carvey "Gerald Ford died today..." skit. I just want to throw that out there.

 

[ctenidae]

Abe Vigoda, on the other hand, is still alive.

 

[JimG.]

An underrated president...not elected, hated by the masses because he was hand picked by Nixon. Shot at twice, probably because he was appointed by Nixon. Hated by the media who took pleasure in portraying him as a total buffoon. Voted out of office in his only presidential election.

Gerald Ford was a gentleman...he owned property in Beaver Creek where my parents own a condo. Loved to ski. We sat at a table with him during lunch one day. Made sure his secret service escort stayed out of the way. A nice, down to Earth man.

Now that he has passed, I hope that history reviews what he did as president and the difficult, almost impossible position he was thrust into that he handled as well as anyone could have expected.

 

[dmc]

hated by the masses because he was hand picked by Nixon. Shot at twice, probably because he was appointed by Nixon.

People mostly hated him because he PARDONED Nixon...

 

[SkiDork]

Abe Vigoda, on the other hand, is still alive.

 

[2knees]

not to be crass or disrespectful, but the skit chevy chase did on snl as President Ford is priceless.

 

[JimG.]

People mostly hated him because he PARDONED Nixon...

I know.

Presidents pardon criminals all the time. Clinton pardoned a few of his buddies as I remember..except for the usual right wing bluster, those pardons flew off the radar with hardly a whimper.

What Nixon did was a result of his obsessive paranoia and he paid dearly. What could be more humiliating than having to resign as president? Not enough for many folks who wanted blood.

Try to look at it in a present day perspective...in the long run, pardoning Nixon and making him go away instead of making him a right wing martyr was much better for the country in the long run.

IMHO and I'm shutting up now because this is going to go political.

 

[dmc]

Presidents pardon criminals all the time. Clinton pardoned a few of his buddies as I remember..except for the usual right wing bluster, those pardons flew off the radar with hardly a whimper.

I had absolutley no intentions of making it political..
:flag:

No need to bring up Clinton unless you feel like proving some political point..
I was mearly bringing up the public record for the converstation at hand and not to prove any point, etc...

The fact is that people didn't like him pardoning Nixon and some didn't even try to re-elect him because of that...

i personally believe he did it to close the chapter and move along as a country..

 

[ctenidae]

i personally believe he did it to close the chapter and move along as a country..

Yup.

 

[JimG.]

I had absolutley no intentions of making it political..
:flag:

No need to bring up Clinton unless you feel like proving some political point..
I was mearly bringing up the public record for the converstation at hand and not to prove any point, etc...

The fact is that people didn't like him pardoning Nixon and some didn't even try to re-elect him because of that...

i personally believe he did it to close the chapter and move along as a country..

Only mentioned Clinton to show that presidential pardons are fairly common and don't usually define a presidency. Not trying to provoke anyone, especially not one of my friends. Sorry if I gave that impression.

I am in total agreement that the pardon was given to close that chapter and move along. I also feel the negativity towards Ford may be traced to a perception that the pardon was part of the deal that made him president, but I have no facts or evidence that any such prerequisite existed.

I guess I like Ford because he's the only president I actually met; I got to talk to him and shake his hand. And it was over lunch at a ski resort. He struck me as a true gentleman.

 

[dmc]

I remember Doonesbury did a comic about Ford skiing in Vail.. And the secret service was saying "snowbunny one to Snowbunny two"

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,917981,00.html

 

[SkiDog]

him because of that...

i personally believe he did it to close the chapter and move along as a country..

Agreed!

M

 

[noski]

i personally believe he did it to close the chapter and move along as a country..

Agreed, and in doing so, totally slammed the door on his ever running for president and winning. He sacrificed his own political future for the good of the country.

 

[BoB]

Also a heck of an athlete

playing football for Michigan State, he got all kinds of awards, can't remember them all.