President Ford Dead at Age 93
by Big Dog on Dec 27, 2006 at 13:44 Uncategorized
Former President Gerald Ford, the only man not elected to the offices of Vice President and President, died of an unspecified illness at the age of 93. Ford Ascended to the Presidency when Richard Nixon resigned in the midst of the Watergate Scandal. Ford inherited a tough situation but was the stabilizing factor in a government on the verge of collapse. Gerald Ford had high approval numbers until he pardoned Nixon, an act many viewed as improper. The pardon though, was the right thing to do because it put the ugliness of Watergate behind us and allowed the country to move on without the distraction of a Nixon trial which certainly would have brought this country to its knees.
Ford has often been maligned as a bumbling man as portrayed by Chevy Chase on Saturday Night Live but the truth is Ford was probably the most athletic of the Presidents and could have played professional football. Ford was considered by those who knew him to be an honest and fair man and his self effacing manner allowed him to enjoy the bits Chase did about him. He met with Chase and expressed how much he actually enjoyed the bits and how funny he thought they were.
Gerald Ford ran for reelection after serving the last two years of Nixon’s term and he was beaten, in large part because of the Nixon pardon, by Jimmy Carter. This country would have been much better off had Ford been reelected. Certainly he was much more competent than Carter and the country would probably have been much better off, at least economically, under a second Ford term.
Funeral arrangements are not complete but word is he will be lain out in California before being moved to DC where he will lay in state at the Rotunda. From there word is he will be buried in Michigan.
God bless Gerald Ford and his family. This country owes him a debt of gratitude for being the lynchpin during a tumultuous time.
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