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December 27, 2006

Gerald R. Ford

President Ford died last night. President Ford will, perhaps forever, be remembered as the unelected President. Selected to replace Spiro Agnew after reports of his corruption surfaced, Ford ascended to the Presidency in August 1974 when President Nixon resigned as it became clear the Watergate scandal would result in his impeachment, and Ford then lost a narrow race to President Carter in 1976. Hopefully President Ford will also be known for his integrity. Would that we all could rise to our circumstances as Gerald Ford did. Even knowing it would make him incredibly unpopular, Ford pardoned President Nixon, closing, as he put it, our long national nightmare and allowing the country to truly move on. The odds are pretty good that, had President Ford chosen not to pardon President Nixon, he would have been reelected in 1976, but pardoning Nixon was the right thing to do, so Ford did it. It is a shame that such willingness to do the right thing regardless of the cost is so clearly a thing of the past in today's Washington.