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Obit: President Gerald R. Ford, Dec. 26, 2006
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Subject: RE: Obit: President Gerald R. Ford, Dec. 26, 2006 From: Ron Davies Date: 27 Dec 06 - 12:53 PM "and his intelligence services" |
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Subject: RE: Obit: President Gerald R. Ford, Dec. 26, 2006 From: Joe Offer Date: 27 Dec 06 - 12:44 PM "Ford let him walk." I dunno, I would think the very worst punishment possible for Nixon was to be forced out of the White House in shame, his tail between his legs. A trial would have made him a martyr in the eyes of many. It would have given him a chance to defend his "legacy," just as Saddam has tried to do in his trial. And it would have torn the country apart. Better that Nixon was pardoned and forgotten. -Joe- |
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Subject: RE: Obit: President Gerald R. Ford, Dec. 26, 2006 From: Ron Davies Date: 27 Dec 06 - 12:36 PM Also, when attacking somebody else's literacy, don't forget to look in the mirror--"juxtapostion" (sic), "assasinating" (sic), "this lead him" (sic). Otherwise you may just undercut the impression you are seeking to leave. Glass houses.... Waiting eagerly for the proof I'm sure you have. And don't bother to cite the botched attempt to recover the hostages in Iran. Our current Mr. Bush nd his "intelligence services" can more than hold their own with this incident. |
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Subject: RE: Obit: President Gerald R. Ford, Dec. 26, 2006 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 27 Dec 06 - 12:34 PM If Ford craved a continued career as president all he needed to do was to let Nixon stand trial. Perhaps he did want to be president longer, he did run, after all. But in pardoning Nixon he did what he felt needed to be done at the time, for the greater good. Most of us didn't understand that, and it did cost him that second term. Unlike those who run now, Ford knew that being president shouldn't be a popularity contest. SRS |
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Subject: RE: Obit: President Gerald R. Ford, Dec. 26, 2006 From: wysiwyg Date: 27 Dec 06 - 12:28 PM OK, let's find some more dead people to diss. How very thoughtful! ~S~ |
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Subject: RE: Obit: President Gerald R. Ford, Dec. 26, 2006 From: WFDU - Ron Olesko Date: 27 Dec 06 - 12:27 PM That's not true Sinsull. Ford gave Nixon a pardon for crimes against the United States. If Nixon were guilty of "murdering little boys" or spitting on the sidewalk, he could have been prosecuted. At the time I felt strongly that the pardon was a huge mistake. I wanted to see Nixon get what was coming to him. In retrospect, I think Ford did the right thing. It was good to see Nixon live out his life as a tired old man with the shadow of his deeds always present. |
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Subject: RE: Obit: President Gerald R. Ford, Dec. 26, 2006 From: SINSULL Date: 27 Dec 06 - 12:27 PM Have to admit Ron after Carter was attacked by a vicious swimming rabbit, I had to wonder. |
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Subject: RE: Obit: President Gerald R. Ford, Dec. 26, 2006 From: Ron Davies Date: 27 Dec 06 - 12:25 PM Slag--Carter "the stupidest"? Proof please. Character assassination of the poster does not qualify. |
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Subject: RE: Obit: President Gerald R. Ford, Dec. 26, 2006 From: SINSULL Date: 27 Dec 06 - 10:36 AM Sorry. Nixon was the worst criminal (political criminal) this country has ever seen and Ford let him walk. He was a traitor. The pardon was so broad that had it been discovered (Hyperbole here) that Tricky Dicky had been murdering little boys and hiding their bodies in the Rose Garden or god forbid banging pages, he could not have been tried. |
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Subject: RE: Obit: President Gerald R. Ford, Dec. 26, 2006 From: katlaughing Date: 27 Dec 06 - 10:24 AM None of them were as bad as Dubya. the congress would have been tied up conducting a vendetta instead of running the country. you mean like they tied themselves up over Clinton... |
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Subject: RE: Obit: President Gerald R. Ford, Dec. 26, 2006 From: kendall Date: 27 Dec 06 - 09:23 AM There is no doubt in my mind that if Ford hadn't pardoned Nixon, the congress would have been tied up conducting a vendetta instead of running the country. Ford and Carter; both good men, both not so good presidents.However, neither one was as bad as Harding, Grant or Pierce. |
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Subject: RE: Obit: President Gerald R. Ford, Dec. 26, 2006 From: Sorcha Date: 27 Dec 06 - 09:11 AM Well, at least it gives 'them' something else to talk about for a while. |
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Subject: RE: Obit: President Gerald R. Ford, Dec. 26, 2006 From: katlaughing Date: 27 Dec 06 - 09:04 AM Slag, before you slag off on anyone about their grammar or spelling consider there are several on this forum who have various degrees of dyslexia; their written word has nothing to do with their intelligence, like Einstein. It is quite easy to read Barry Finn's postings and understand exactly what he means. As to Ford, I agree with Barry and Spaw. |
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Subject: RE: Obit: President Gerald R. Ford, Dec. 26, 2006 From: GUEST,Number 6 Date: 27 Dec 06 - 07:53 AM Correct spaw. Very good. Why do you think Nixon chose him as VP. biLL |
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Subject: RE: Obit: President Gerald R. Ford, Dec. 26, 2006 From: catspaw49 Date: 27 Dec 06 - 05:18 AM Let's not forget he was another of those stellar members of the Warren Commision either. Ford was nothing if not obliging and perhaps it would have been better had he been nothing. There is no doubt in my mind that we owe the likes of Dubya to the fact that there was no trial of Richard Nixon. Ford established a terrible precedent for the Office that will continue to hold power over the quality of men who have it. That it was a Nixon plan is very probable but it was the obliging and loyal Ford who put it in motion. Although there is much to be said for loyalty, it is a poor substitute for duty. Spaw |
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Subject: RE: Obit: President Gerald R. Ford, Dec. 26, 2006 From: Slag Date: 27 Dec 06 - 04:50 AM I'm debating on whether to debate with a semi-literate. Your grammar and spelling are atrocious, Mr. Finn. You misquote me and present such simplistic nonsense that I doubt you could even begin to understand what I am communicating. |
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Subject: RE: Obit: President Gerald R. Ford, Dec. 26, 2006 From: Barry Finn Date: 27 Dec 06 - 03:21 AM I'll tag this on to my above post after reading Slag's. Reagan put the nation back in the saddle again, back about 60 years with his 'trickled down economics'. We were a nation on horse back again with hin at the reigns. Carter on the other got our hostages (yes it was really him) out with out the blood letting that's been seen since. As for being an idiot, he the only pres that's been awarded the Noble Peace Prize for peace. If he'd been allowed to run the peanut factory that he was voted into he'd have been a shoe in for a 2nd term & would've done the country as great a service as he's done since then for the world. It's a shame that the dems weren't stronger in those times when the slam of spin took Ronny out of the 'B' flicks & put him on Prime Time. He was nothing but a Contra cartoon. Barry |
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Subject: RE: Obit: President Gerald R. Ford, Dec. 26, 2006 From: Barry Finn Date: 27 Dec 06 - 03:06 AM I'd have to agree with Dale & Joe. He was a decent man, thogh he was somewhat less as a president. I didn't think he did much in the way of forewording our nation but at least he did nothung to help drag it down farther than it had already been "drugged". That's the best I can say, his worst was, & here I have to disagree with you Joe, he pardoned Nixion instead of tried him. I believe if he had Bush today wouldn't have been as cocky to have tried to sell us a war. Still his heart, like Carter's was always in the right place & not in someone's pocket. Barry |
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Subject: RE: Obit: President Gerald R. Ford, Dec. 26, 2006 From: Slag Date: 27 Dec 06 - 03:05 AM So Gerry bogeyed the 19th hole! We saw it coming. Dick Nixon hand-picked Mr. Ford (Oddly the same name as that theater of the absurd where Lincoln [ whose secretary's name was Kennedy {which is Irish for "Ugly Head"} and whose VP was Johnson] was de-selected in his booth by a man named Booth) to which Ford said "Pardon Me?" and to which Millhouse ( that's Tomlin-ese for "Tricky Dick") replied "No, No, No! Pardon ME!" All of which unfortunately lead poor Mr. Ford to believe he actually was a President of the people. This lead him to run for said office at the end of his appointed term. Unfortunate because the "Reagan Phenomenon" was just beginning to gain mommentum. And unfortunately most Republicans cannot see beyond the scope of expediency and short-range weather forecasting. This not only set Reagan back four years he could ill afford but in an understandable gut-reaction against the blatant move to subvert justice by Ford's egregious pardoning of Nixon (kinda reminds me of Clinton's "pardoning binge") Jimmy ( "Mr. Peanut") Carter was swept into office. In my humble but very accurate opinion, Carter was the stupidest person to ever occupy that position but that is mass for another Super Nova. By the time Mr. Reagan reached the Office of President he was in his prime and perhaps a little beyond. Enter the nutcase ( did anyone ever determine Hinckley's party affiliation???) who decided to win Jodie Foster's undying love by assasinating the President. No theater, no clever name juxtapostion, just a Squeaky, cowardly street shooting. Dutch was taken down a few notches by that experience. Toward the end of his second term we all knew that he was not functioning up to his own par. I believe the early signs of Alzheimers was there but with Nancy's help he made it through. Meanwhile Gerry was trying to make par without injuring too many spectators. In fairness I suppose that Ford was about as adequate as any other politician for the office. He was average. But he never would have been there but for Nixon's foibles and follies and felonies. Dick needed an Ace-in-the-Hole and he got one in Ford, the incidental President, the ad hoc President with but one real mission---Pardon Nixon. |
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Subject: RE: Obit: President Gerald R. Ford, Dec. 26, 2006 From: Joe Offer Date: 27 Dec 06 - 02:22 AM I don't think a Nixon trial would have done the country any good, so I'm glad Ford gave him a pardon. Nixon left the presidency in well-deserved shame, and that was enough. Gerald Ford was a decent, reasonable man who cared for his country more than he cared for any particular ideology. I wish we had more politicians like him and Jimmy Carter. I think he WAS one of the better presidents of my lifetime. He did his job, qand served his country. May he rest in peace. -Joe Offer, born in Michigan- |
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Subject: RE: Obit: President Gerald R. Ford, Dec. 2006 From: GUEST,Dale Date: 27 Dec 06 - 12:48 AM Maybe not one of the best presidents, but a good and honest man. He and Jimmy Carter were the only two in my memory that I would care to sit down to a conversation with. They would treat you with respect. That counts for a lot. |
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Subject: RE: Obit: President Gerald R. Ford, Dec. 2006 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 27 Dec 06 - 12:38 AM Me again, sorry to be back so many times in a row. Here is a chronology for those younger Mudcatter's who might not understand why Ford was such a balm to the country. Only problem with this timeline is that if he died in California then he died on Dec. 26, not Dec. 27. SRS Dates in the life of Gerald Ford By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS July 14, 1913: Leslie Lynch King Jr. born, Omaha, Neb. After his parents divorce and his mother remarries, he is adopted by his stepfather and takes his name: Gerald R. Ford. 1935: graduates from University of Michigan, where he had been a star football player. 1941: graduates from Yale University law school. 1942-46: in U.S. Naval Reserve, including service aboard aircraft carrier in the Pacific. Oct. 15, 1948: marries Elizabeth "Betty" Bloomer Warren. They have four children: Michael Gerald, born 1950; John Gardner, born 1952; Steven Meigs, born 1956; and Susan Elizabeth, born 1957. Nov. 2, 1948: elected to U.S. House of Representatives after defeating incumbent in Republican primary. In Congress for nearly 25 years, including stint as House minority leader. 1963-64: serves on Warren Commission that investigated assassination of President Kennedy. Dec. 6, 1973: confirmed as vice president after resignation of Spiro Agnew. Aug. 9, 1974: becomes president after resignation of Richard Nixon. Sept. 8, 1974: gives Nixon an unconditional pardon. Oct. 17, 1974: goes before a congressional committed to discuss pardon; first sitting president to testify under oath in such circumstances. Nov. 23-24, 1974: summit in Vladivostok, U.S.S.R., with Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev. They reach tentative agreement to limit the number of nuclear weapons. April 30, 1975: Saigon falls, ending the Vietnam War. May 12, 1975: The White House announces the new Cambodian government had seized an American merchant ship, the Mayaguez, in international waters. Two days later, U.S. forces raid a Cambodian island and recapture. All crew members are released safely by Cambodia, but some 40 U.S. servicemen are killed. July 30-Aug. 2, 1975: Ford among leaders of 35 nations meeting in Helsinki, Finland, on European security. Ford, Brezhnev report progress on strategic arms issues. Sept. 5, 1975: Charles Manson follower Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme arrested after aiming a semiautomatic pistol at Ford in Sacramento, Calif. Sept. 22, 1975: Activist Sara Jane Moore arrested after firing a gun at Ford in San Francisco. In both attempts, Ford was unhurt. July 4, 1976: Ford is president as nation pauses to mark its Bicentennial. Nov. 2, 1976: defeated by Jimmy Carter in quest for a full term as president. Jan. 20, 1977: Leaves office; Carter is inaugurated. April 1978: Ford and his children stage "intervention" to persuade his wife, Betty, to seek treatment for abuse of medication, alcohol. The successful treatment leads to founding of Betty Ford Center. Oct. 27, 1999: Ford and his wife presented with Congressional Gold Medals. August 2000: Suffers small stroke while attending the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia. May 21, 2001: Wins John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award for pardoning Richard Nixon. Sept. 14, 2001: Former presidents Ford, Carter, Bush and Clinton attend prayer service at National Cathedral in Washington after the Sept. 11 attacks. The Rev. Billy Graham is among the speakers. June 11, 2004: Joins President Bush and former Presidents Carter, Bush and Clinton at the funeral in Washington of former President Reagan. Nov. 12, 2004: Attends groundbreaking ceremony at the University of Michigan for the new home of the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. January 2006: Spends 12 days in a California hospital for treatment of pneumonia. August 2006: Undergoes treatment at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, receiving a cardiac pacemaker and angioplasty. Dec. 27, 2006: Dies at age 93, according to his wife, Betty. |
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Subject: RE: Obit: President Gerald R. Ford, Dec. 2006 From: SINSULL Date: 27 Dec 06 - 12:36 AM Right - Nixon only attempted to overthrow the Constitution. One of Ford's "attempted assassins" was Squeaky Frome (sp?), one of Charles Manson's followers. I believe she said "Bang Bang, You're dead" but never fired. Those were strange times. |
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Subject: RE: Obit: President Gerald R. Ford, Dec. 2006 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 27 Dec 06 - 12:28 AM Hey, all things considered, he probably saved us a lot of grief. And when you look at George W. Bush, Nixon wasn't really so bad, now was he? |
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Subject: RE: Obit: President Gerald R. Ford, Dec. 2006 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 27 Dec 06 - 12:28 AM From the San Francisco Chronicle (link): Gerald R. Ford, who picked up the pieces of Richard Nixon's scandal-shattered White House as the 38th and only president in America's history never elected to nationwide office, has died, his wife, Betty, said Tuesday. He was 93. "My family joins me in sharing the difficult news that Gerald Ford, our beloved husband, father, grandfather and great grandfather has passed away at 93 years of age," Mrs. Ford said in a brief statement issued from her husband's office in Rancho Mirage. "His life was filled with love of God, his family and his country." The statement did not say where Ford died or list a cause of death. Ford was an accidental president, Nixon's hand-picked successor, a man of much political experience who had never run on a national ticket. He was as open and straightforward as Nixon was tightly controlled and conspiratorial. He took office minutes after Nixon flew off into exile in 1974 and declared "our long national nightmare is over." But he revived the debate a month later by granting Nixon a pardon for all crimes he committed as president. That single act, it was widely believed, cost Ford election to a term of his own in 1976, but it won praise in later years as a courageous act that allowed the nation to move on. The Vietnam War ended in defeat for the U.S. during his presidency with the fall of Saigon in April 1975. In a speech as the end neared, Ford said: "Today, America can regain the sense of pride that existed before Vietnam. But it cannot be achieved by refighting a war that is finished as far as America is concerned." Evoking Abraham Lincoln, he said it was time to "look forward to an agenda for the future, to unify, to bind up the nation's wounds." Ford also earned a place in the history books as the first unelected vice president, chosen by Nixon to replace Spiro Agnew, also forced from office by scandal. He was in the White House only 895 days, but changed it more than it changed him. Even after two women tried separately to kill him, the presidency of Jerry Ford remained open and plain, and — to greatest satisfaction to a nation numbed by Watergate — not dishonest. Even to millions of Americans who had voted two years earlier for Nixon, the transition to Ford's leadership was one of the most welcomed in the history of the democratic process — despite the fact that it occurred without an election. After the Watergate ordeal, Americans liked their new president — and first lady Betty, whose candor charmed the country. They liked her for speaking openly about growing up problems of young people, including her own daughter; they admired her for not hiding that she had a mastectomy — in fact, her example caused thousands of women to seek breast examinations. And she remained one of the country's most admired women even after the Fords left the White House when she was hospitalized in 1978 and admitted to having become addicted to drugs and alcohol she took for painful arthritis and a pinched nerve in her neck. Four years later she founded the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage a substance abuse facility next to Eisenhower Medical Center. In a long congressional career in which he rose to be House Republican leader, Ford lit few fires. In the words of Congressional Quarterly, he "built a reputation for being solid, dependable and loyal - a man more comfortable carrying out the programs of others than in initiating things on his own." When Agnew resigned in a bribery scandal in October 1973, Ford was one of four finalists to succeed him: Texan John Connally, New York's Nelson Rockefeller and California's Ronald Reagan. "Personal factors enter into such a decision," Nixon recalled for a Ford biographer in 1991. I knew all of the final four personally and had great respect for each one of then, but I had known Jerry Ford longer and better than any of the rest. So Ford it was. He became the first vice president appointed under the 25th amendment to the Constitution. On Aug. 9, 1974, after seeing Nixon off to exile, Ford assumed the office. The next morning, he still made his own breakfast and padded to the front door in his pajamas to get the newspaper. Said a ranking Democratic congressman: "Maybe he is a plodder, but right now the advantages of having a plodder in the presidency are enormous." It was rare that Ford was ever as eloquent as he was for those dramatic moments of his swearing-in at the White House. "My fellow Americans," he said, "our long national nightmare is over. Our Constitution works. Our great republic is a government of laws and not of men. Here the people rule." And, true to his reputation as unassuming Jerry, he added: "I am acutely aware that you have not elected me as your president by your ballots. So I ask you to confirm me with your prayers." For Ford, a full term was not to be. He survived an intraparty challenge from Ronald Reagan only to lose to Democrat Jimmy Carter in November. In the campaign, he ignored Carter's record as governor of Georgia and concentrated on his own achievements as president. Carter won 297 electoral votes to his 240. After Reagan came back to defeat Carter in 1980, the two former presidents became collaborators, working together on joint projects. Even as president, Ford often talked with reporters several times a day. He averaged 200 outside speeches a year as House Republican leader, a pace he kept up as vice president and diminished, seemingly, only slightly as chief executive. He kept speaking after leaving the White House, generally for fees of $15,000 to $20,000. Ford was never asked to the White House for a social event during Reagan's eight years as president. In office, Ford's living tastes were modest. When he became vice president, he chose to remain in the same Alexandria, Va., home — unpretentious except for a swimming pool — that he shared with his family as a congressman. |
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Subject: RE: Obit: President Gerald R. Ford, Dec. 2006 From: SINSULL Date: 27 Dec 06 - 12:25 AM Can I whine about the fact that he pardoned Nixon? |
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Subject: Obit: President Gerald R. Ford, Dec. 2006 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 27 Dec 06 - 12:22 AM We knew it was coming, he was the oldest living (former) president ever. Gerald R. Ford, age 93, died on December 26, 2006. He lived in interesting times, with all that that implies. Please DON'T whine about this being "above the line." It belongs there. SRS
-Joe Offer- |
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Subject: BS: President Gerald Ford passes at 93 From: Devilmaster Date: 27 Dec 06 - 12:21 AM Betty Ford just confirmed to the AP |
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