Gerald Ford Dies

[Gravitymaster 0]

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/12/27/D8M900EO0.html

R.I.P. Mr. President.

-

[lawrocket 3]

A president whose greatness was realized long after he left office. He was the last POTUS that was willing to commit political suicide, and did it to do the right thing.

RIP, Mr. President.

My wife is hotter than your wife.

[Gawain 0]

RIP President Ford and best to Mrs. Ford.

So I try and I scream and I beg and I sigh
Just to prove I'm alive, and it's alright
'Cause tonight there's a way I'll make light of my treacherous life
Make light!

[masterrig 1]

He was a good man and a good president. He will, be missed.


Chuck

[warpedskydiver 0]

RIP Gerald, your friends in Naples will miss you greatly.

[Andy9o8 2]

He provided us with just the right kind of healing that we needed at the time, when Watergate had put the entire country in a pall for over a year, and the atmosphere in Washington was absolutely poisonous. I remember a day or two after he took office when he gave an impromptu news conference in shirtsleeves on Air Force One – he was friendly, relaxed and engaging. It was like a breath of fresh air, and a real contrast to the gloomy, formal Nixon, who never would have done that, because he disliked informality and hated the press.

I also think he did the right thing in pardoning Nixon; more than anything, we needed to put Watergate behind us once and for all. An indictment and criminal trial of a former president would have been a horrible thing for us to go through, and he recognized that.

He was also a totally decent, un-selfish and moral person, somewhat of a rarity in the White House.

Blue skies, Gerry. You've earned it.

[quade 4]

Quote

A president whose greatness was realized long after he left office. He was the last POTUS that was willing to commit political suicide, and did it to do the right thing.

RIP, Mr. President.

Yeah, I keep hearing people say this. He was never elected to President nor Vice President. He was appointed to VP by Nixon. I don't get it. How was pardoning Nixon "the right thing"?

If anything, it opened the door further so that President's could feel immune to prosecution.

Seriously, what am I missing?

(Can you imagine the outcry if Clinton had resigned and Gore had pardoned him?)

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[kallend 2,148]

Quote

Quote

A president whose greatness was realized long after he left office. He was the last POTUS that was willing to commit political suicide, and did it to do the right thing.

RIP, Mr. President.

Yeah, I keep hearing people say this. He was never elected to President nor Vice President. He was appointed to VP by Nixon. I don't get it. How was pardoning Nixon "the right thing"?

If anything, it opened the door further so that President's could feel immune to prosecution.

Seriously, what am I missing?

(Can you imagine the outcry if Clinton had resigned and Gore had pardoned him?)

I agree about the pardon, it was NOT the right thing to do.

However, I can't offhand think of any deliberate lies he told the people or the Congress, unlike every president since and most that came before him.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[SpeedRacer 1]

posted in the other forum:

Here's one good quote by Ford:

"A government that's big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take everything you have."

Speed Racer
--------------------------------------------------

[lawrocket 3]

Quote

Quote

A president whose greatness was realized long after he left office. He was the last POTUS that was willing to commit political suicide, and did it to do the right thing.

RIP, Mr. President.

Yeah, I keep hearing people say this. He was never elected to President nor Vice President. He was appointed to VP by Nixon. I don't get it. How was pardoning Nixon "the right thing"?

If anything, it opened the door further so that President's could feel immune to prosecution.

Seriously, what am I missing?

(Can you imagine the outcry if Clinton had resigned and Gore had pardoned him?)

About the outcry - if Clinton had resigned and Gore would have pardoned him, the outcry likely would have been comparable to the outcry that Ford faced. Overnight, he lost 35 points on his approval rating. Odds are, it cost Ford the election in 1976. Gore would have been up for reelection and lost - probably mightily.

I don't think Ford ever wanted to become POTUS. It's probably why he did the job the way he did. So it killed his shot at a reelection by granting the pardon to Nixon. To him, that was okay.

And as far as letting Presidents feel immune, I don't know how it did. The true effect is that every Capitol Hill reporter wants to become the next Woodward & Bernstein. Since then, press oversight has become tremendous. Can you imagine what the press nowadays would do with Jack Kennedy's philandering?

It was good for the nation in the long run.

My wife is hotter than your wife.

[jakee 1,595]

Quote

And as far as letting Presidents feel immune, I don't know how it did. The true effect is that every Capitol Hill reporter wants to become the next Woodward & Bernstein. Since then, press oversight has become tremendous.

But thats not the effect of the pardon, thats the effect of Woodward and Bernstein.

Do you want to have an ideagasm?

[quade 4]

Quote

The true effect is that every Capitol Hill reporter wants to become the next Woodward & Bernstein.

If only . . .

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[marcandalysse 0]

The joke at the time was that when Nixon was carrying his suitcase out of the white house, he bumped into Ford who was carrying his golf clubs into the white house.

-Pardon me! said Tricky Dicky
-Yeah, sure, okay! replied Ford

"The reason angels can fly is that they take themselves so lightly." --GK Chesterton

[ltdiver 3]

Quote

How was pardoning Nixon "the right thing"?

Not necessarily the 'right thing' to pardon what Nixon did, but perhaps the right thing to do in that point of history, for the Nation.

Think about it. The country was needing to heal from Viet Nam and all the turmoil that came with that debacle. The energy needed to be directed towards that endeavor. If the HUGE amount of time and effort needed to be split with following the Nixon trial and re-trial, and years of appeals, the country wouldn't have been able to focus it attention to healing quite so much.

Just my .02 here.

ltdiver

Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon

[quade 4]

Quote

Quote

How was pardoning Nixon "the right thing"?

Not necessarily the 'right thing' to pardon what Nixon did, but perhaps the right thing to do in that point of history, for the Nation.

Maybe it was just my perception at the time it all happened, but I could swear people, including his own staff, were pretty pissed off about the concept.

As years went by, the revisionists came in . . . hell . . . even the Kennedy's gave him a "Profiles in Courage" award for it and I certainly see the point that some people try to make, but I still can't see any real justification in doing it.

Just his presents in The White House was enough to "heal the Nation", to my recollection, the pardon was more akin to pouring salt into a healing wound. What I think might have been more justifiable would have been to slow any investigation and since Nixon was no longer a factor, just let it die with a "slap on the wrist" fine and some sort of commutation, but let future leaders know for certain that no man is above the law.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[RkyMtnHigh 0]

I never thought that my 93 yr old grandfather (Gagaw) would outlive him....WOW! something to celebrate for the New Year!

_________________________________________

[lawrocket 3]

Quote

Just his presents in The White House was enough to "heal the Nation", to my recollection, the pardon was more akin to pouring salt into a healing wound. What I think might have been more justifiable would have been to slow any investigation and since Nixon was no longer a factor

Well, that was the problem. The nation was STILL talking about Nixon. Nixon was still the centerpiece. It's kinda like how this Iraq war dominates political discussion - there are all kinds of other things that deserve attention but the Iraq war gets most of it.

Ford believed, perhaps incorrectly, that the nation could not move forward while looking back. I give him all the credit in the world for his decisiveness and brass balls in granting that pardon. He floated no "trial balloon" - he just did it after what was apparently great consideration.

My wife is hotter than your wife.

[Skyrad 0]

Well according to one American church website

http://www.godhatesamerica.com/

How come these wackos haven'y been done for treason or something?

When an author is too meticulous about his style, you may presume that his mind is frivolous and his content flimsy.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

[Gravitymaster 0]

Quote

Well according to one American church website

http://www.godhatesamerica.com/

How come these wackos haven'y been done for treason or something?

Freedom of speech. It's the price we have to pay to live in a free society.

You really don't get a true sense of how nutty these people are until you hear them. One of their spokespeople was on a TV program a few months ago. They are all about Hellfire and Brimstone and God is going to make you rot in Hell for your sins.

-

[SpeedRacer 1]

They're really all about litigation:

1) Act as offensive as possible until someone assaults you
2) Sue


seriously, this is how these people make a living.

Speed Racer
--------------------------------------------------

[Andy9o8 2]

Quote

Quote

Well according to one American church website

http://www.godhatesamerica.com/

How come these wackos haven'y been done for treason or something?

Freedom of speech. It's the price we have to pay to live in a free society.

Exactly. The only thing worse than a country in which people can say and do this sort of thing is one in which they cannot.