Former president took over during depths of Watergate scandal

LOS ANGELES - Gerald R. Ford, who picked up the pieces of Richard Nixon’s scandal-shattered White House as the 38th and only unelected president in America’s history, 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 had battled pneumonia in January 2006 and underwent two heart treatments — including an angioplasty — in August at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

Rest of the story: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10949314/

PS: I don't know if this is the best place to put this. Move it to another section that better fits this story if you want to.

sad, but at 93, it's been no real surprise.

All I could say is that the only wrong thing he did was to PARDON a crook: Nixon... Guess he didn't have enough time as a "Republican" president to show his teeth. Anyway...

http://www.watergate.info/ford/pardon.shtml
http://www.watergate.info/sounds/ford-pardon.ram

Farewell, may you "rest in peace...".

"I am acutely aware that you have not elected me as your President by your ballots, and so I ask you to confirm me as your President with your prayers. And I hope that such prayers will also be the first of many."



My fellow Americans, 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. But there is a higher Power, by whatever name we honor Him, who ordains not only righteousness but love, not only justice but mercy.

As we bind up the internal wounds of Watergate, more painful and more poisonous than those of foreign wars, let us restore the golden rule to our political process, and let brotherly love purge our hearts of suspicion and of hate.

In the beginning, I asked you to pray for me. Before closing, I ask again your prayers, for Richard Nixon and for his family. May our former President, who brought peace to millions, find it for himself. May God bless and comfort his wonderful wife and daughters, whose love and loyalty will forever be a shining legacy to all who bear the lonely burdens of the White House.

I can only guess at those burdens, although I have witnessed at close hand the tragedies that befell three Presidents and the lesser trials of others.

With all the strength and all the good sense I have gained from life, with all the confidence my family, my friends, and my dedicated staff impart to me, and with the good will of countless Americans I have encountered in recent visits to 40 States, I now solemnly reaffirm my promise I made to you last December 6: to uphold the Constitution, to do what is right as God gives me to see the right, and to do the very best I can for America.

God helping me, I will not let you down. Thank you.

Gerald R. Ford - August 9, 1974

I just want to know where is all the media attention?

Ford's death is just a 20 second mention during the nightly news... Ronald Reagan got 24 hour coverage with lines of people wanting to stand before his withered body.

What's up with that?

All I could say is that the only wrong thing he did was to PARDON a crook: Nixon... Guess he didn't have enough time as a "Republican" president to show his teeth. Anyway...

http://www.watergate.info/ford/pardon.shtml
http://www.watergate.info/sounds/ford-pardon.ram

Farewell, may you "rest in peace...".

Mr Ford pardoned Mr Nixon to put the entire issue to rest, to allow the nation to move forward.

Ronald Reagan got 24 hour coverage with lines of people wanting to stand before his withered body.

Maybe they just wanted to make sure he was really dead, cold dead...

Mr Ford pardoned Mr Nixon to put the entire issue to rest, to allow the nation to move forward.

Yes indeed, Mr Ford pardoned Mr Nixon.

He pardoned him and his crooked gang of co-conspirators, proving what a thoroughly despicable and degenerate bunch of thieves and liars they all were.

I just want to know where is all the media attention?

Ford's death is just a 20 second mention during the nightly news... Ronald Reagan got 24 hour coverage with lines of people wanting to stand before his withered body.

What's up with that?
"Who cares about President Car-Company?" is the real question.

Reagan presided over the 80s, winning election twice and having many political ambitions like Star Wars and Reaganomics. Ford pardoned Nixon, and then not much else.

Yes indeed, Mr Ford pardoned Mr Nixon.

He pardoned him and his crooked gang of co-conspirators, proving what a thoroughly despicable and degenerate bunch of thieves and liars they all were.
God bless America. ;)

I know a lot of people who were very pissed at Ford for Pardoning Nixon and the release of the Nixon tapes a few years ago just brought all that back up.

A lot of people were angry at the time, but in retrospect, it was probably best for the country that Nixon was pardoned. Yes he was a criminal, but we needed to put that incident behind us and move on. Little would have been served by dragging it out any further.

I don't know that I agree that the country ever benefits from letting criminal actions or abuses of power go unpunished.

It certainly set a bad example for my generation and generations since.

I don't know that I agree that the country ever benefits from letting criminal actions or abuses of power go unpunished.

It seems to me that the crimes Nixon was guilty of were fairly minor ones. No one died as a result of his decision to burglarize the offices of his political opposition. I do think his crimes were politically horrendous, but any prosecution would have been mainly politically motivated, and that sort of thinking is what motivated Nixon to commit his crimes. I think in retrospect that pardoning Nixon was the right thing to do.


It certainly set a bad example for my generation and generations since.

Perhaps, but there are many lessons to be learned from that example. Ford pointed out one of them. "Our constitution works"..."This is a nation of laws, not men". In the end he was right.

All I could say is that the only wrong thing he did was to PARDON a crook: Nixon... Guess he didn't have enough time as a "Republican" president to show his teeth. Anyway...

http://www.watergate.info/ford/pardon.shtml
http://www.watergate.info/sounds/ford-pardon.ram

Farewell, may you "rest in peace...".
who the heck else are you going to pardon?

it's not like he sold pardons to child molesters just before he left office.

Nixon just got caught. God only knows what the rest of them have done. Bush for example will never stand trial. It's all relative, and a matter of perception and what is happening in the country at the time.

The Fords may decide not to go with the whole presidential funeral. It's the family that makes the choice. Reagan planned his funeral himself, while his brain still functioned apparently.

The Fords may decide not to go with the whole presidential funeral. It's the family that makes the choice. Reagan planned his funeral himself, while his brain still functioned apparently.Reagan planned his funeral in his 30's?

That was looking pretty far ahead!

Reagan planned his funeral in his 30's?

That was looking pretty far ahead!
I figured someone would grab that one... I was gonna elaborate but I knew someone would do it better and of course you did. :D

Nixon just got caught. God only knows what the rest of them have done. Bush for example will never stand trial. It's all relative, and a matter of perception and what is happening in the country at the time.

The Fords may decide not to go with the whole presidential funeral. It's the family that makes the choice. Reagan planned his funeral himself, while his brain still functioned apparently.
Must have planned it in the 1970's or earlier... damn beat me to the punch, should have read ahead

Must have planned it in the 1970's or earlier... damn beat me to the punch, should have read ahead
:D

When Mr Reagan died there were news stories talking about presidential funerals and how they are planned by the President while he is still in office.

When Mr Reagan died there were news stories talking about presidential funerals and how they are planned by the President while he is still in office.Well, then, I guess Sal worded it correctly after all.

Reagan planned his own funeral while his brain was apparently still functioning. :)

I just want to know where is all the media attention?

Ford's death is just a 20 second mention during the nightly news... Ronald Reagan got 24 hour coverage with lines of people wanting to stand before his withered body.

What's up with that?


Whether or not one liked Reagan, he was a powerful, eloquent President who did change the course of America. He became the icon of the Republican/Conservative movement. What was witnessed in Reagan's funeral wasnt' contrived, it was genuine. Reagan was loved and he is missed by millions.

Not to put Ford down, it seems he was a nice guy and all, but all he did was quench the fires of Watergate and pass the torch of leadership from Nixon, who got himself caught up in corruption to Carter who gave whole new meaning to the word incompetent. Ford doesn't have much of a legacy. Apparently, he was a good man and one can pray for him. He just didn't do anything memorable outside of getting into the Whitehouse.

It seems to me that the crimes Nixon was guilty of were fairly minor ones. No one died as a result of his decision to burglarize the offices of his political opposition.

I agree completely. His crimes were fairly minor. Far far more serious that a president simply getting some strange poon tang, but still......fairly inconsequential.

Yet Nixon was driven from office for them.

Clinton was impeached for his meaningless dalliance.

And then along comes the thoroughly dishonest, pathological liar GWBush, who lies this nation into a disastrous "war", and suffers not the slightest punishment whatsoever. Now, ponder that for a bit and then tell me that the goddamned inmates are not running the asylum.......

Perhaps, but there are many lessons to be learned from that example. Ford pointed out one of them. "Our constitution works"..."This is a nation of laws, not men". In the end he was right.


In my opinion Ford pardoning Nixon flies in the face of the claim that we are a nation of laws.

It provides a prime example of the point that we are, in fact, a nation of privilege. If you are rich enough or connected enough then you can get away with breaking the law.

The President is supposed to uphold the law. He/She is not supposed to be above it.

I agree completely. His crimes were fairly minor. Far far more serious that a president simply getting some strange poon tang, but still......fairly inconsequential.

Yet Nixon was driven from office for them.

Clinton was impeached for his meaningless dalliance.

And then along comes the thoroughly dishonest, pathological liar GWBush, who lies this nation into a disastrous "war", and suffers not the slightest punishment whatsoever. Now, ponder that for a bit and then tell me that the goddamned inmates are not running the asylum.......

Clinton was impeached for perjury, in a court of law in a matter he was personally involved. not that i, or anyone with a brain, would expect anyone who warps the truth to fit their personal agenda to understand.

Did FT just say poon tang? :D

Yes. Most intelligent thing I've heard him say so far!

Ford Disagreed With Bush About Invading Iraq

By Bob Woodward
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 28, 2006; Page A01

Former president Gerald R. Ford said in an embargoed interview in July 2004 that the Iraq war was not justified. "I don't think I would have gone to war," he said a little more than a year after President Bush launched the invasion advocated and carried out by prominent veterans of Ford's own administration.

In a four-hour conversation at his house in Beaver Creek, Colo., Ford "very strongly" disagreed with the current president's justifications for invading Iraq and said he would have pushed alternatives, such as sanctions, much more vigorously. In the tape-recorded interview, Ford was critical not only of Bush but also of Vice President Cheney -- Ford's White House chief of staff -- and then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, who served as Ford's chief of staff and then his Pentagon chief.

"Rumsfeld and Cheney and the president made a big mistake in justifying going into the war in Iraq. They put the emphasis on weapons of mass destruction," Ford said. "And now, I've never publicly said I thought they made a mistake, but I felt very strongly it was an error in how they should justify what they were going to do."

In a conversation that veered between the current realities of a war in the Middle East and the old complexities of the war in Vietnam whose bitter end he presided over as president, Ford took issue with the notion of the United States entering a conflict in service of the idea of spreading democracy.

"Well, I can understand the theory of wanting to free people," Ford said, referring to Bush's assertion that the United States has a "duty to free people." But the former president said he was skeptical "whether you can detach that from the obligation number one, of what's in our national interest." He added: "And I just don't think we should go hellfire damnation around the globe freeing people, unless it is directly related to our own national security."

rest of article (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/27/AR2006122701558.html)

And then along comes the thoroughly dishonest, pathological liar GWBush, who lies this nation into a disastrous "war"

prove it

prove it
Nothing can be "proven" per-say.

But what you do is you make an EDUCATED GUESS BASED ON EVIDENCE. And that then leads someone to their position. Clearly FT made an educated decision in regards to the Iraq War and has found a position he seems fit based on the evidence he has reviewed.

The only argument you ever give is, "well that can't be proven 100%"! Honestly Decka, come up with something better.

Nothing can be "proven" per-say.

Brush up on your latin, bud. And isn't that your constant refrain when challenged by rhetorical assertions?

Nothing can be "proven" per-say.

But what you do is you make an EDUCATED GUESS BASED ON EVIDENCE. And that then leads someone to their position. Clearly FT made an educated decision in regards to the Iraq War and has found a position he seems fit based on the evidence he has reviewed.

The only argument you ever give is, "well that can't be proven 100%"! Honestly Decka, come up with something better.

No need to OD... the fact is, he CANT prove it.. he has a theory based on loosely fit evidence... and hey i won't deny that it is entirely possible that he could be right.. but he can't prove it.

So until he stops trying to pass off his theory as fact, i will call him out on it every time.

IMO, Ford's decision to withhold his criticism of Bush's Iraq debacle was done for the same partisan reasons as his pardon of Nixon.

It is another example of putting Party before the Country.

What's with making people stand on a marble floor for four hours till some old geezer of 84 passes out. Honestly...way to ruin a service. I can't believe they did that.

Originally Posted by Freethinker
And then along comes the thoroughly dishonest, pathological liar GWBush, who lies this nation into a disastrous "war"...

prove it

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&ie=UTF-8&q=cost+US+war++iraq&btnG=Search+News

FT, you're never going to be satisfied with whatever government is in place here in the U.S. You've made that very plain. You appear to subscribe to some belief that a government should run according to rules that very few, if any beyond yourself know about. Through all of your incessant complaining, you've yet to offer little beyond your absolute hatred for the current administration. I have to wonder if the Internet had been available 20 years ago if you would have railed about the administrations of that time through today or if your diatribes are limited to the current POTUS.

FT, you're never going to be satisfied with whatever government is in place here in the U.S.

That's a bit of a stretch. I think FT would be content if our government weren't run by a shameless gaggle of unapologetic neo-cons. He has made it plain that he would prefer any number of the more socialist methods of running the country that are currently being proffered by thinkers in various liberal rags.

That's a bit of a stretch. I think FT would be content if our government weren't run by a shameless gaggle of unapologetic neo-cons. He has made it plain that he would prefer any number of the more socialist methods of running the country that are currently being proffered by thinkers in various liberal rags.

Agree...

That's a bit of a stretch.
Bullshit.

Have you ever heard him say anything positive about this country? He hates everything about it, and that's not up for debate. Trust me on that one....

I mean, seriously - if you still don't believe me, then try reading what he says more carefully. He's the only person here who actually admits to hating our politics, our leadership (throughout time, that is), our people ("your average 'Muurican, Joe Sixpack", I mean), our customs (i.e. religion/prescribed morality), and our history.

He's rankly anti-American, period.

He likes baseball, hot dogs, and Charlie Daniels.

He likes baseball, hot dogs, and Charlie Daniels.
So does his role model, Fidel.