RIP President Gerald R Ford.

[SolidusRaccoon]

Remember the true, great man. Not the version the lefties want you to remember with their historical revisions.

[Deckard Canine]

Me, I was born after his presidency and have learned little about him outside of mockeries of his personality on "The Simpsons" and "Saturday Night Live." I recall some TV show taking place at a Gerald Ford Middle School, which seemed like a joke. But today I read part of a long newspaper article about him, and he didn't sound too bad as modern Presidents go. He had his good, bad, and ineffective ways like so many others.

[Earl McClaw]

He had his good, bad, and ineffective ways like so many others.

While his most "memorable" trait (by characture standards) might be his stumbles, he also had the courage to do something that probably ended his politial career but might have helped the country deal with the aftereffects of Watergate - the highly controversial Nixon pardon. (Although I don't know how Ralph - or other forumites - thinks of the pardon.)

[Lee M]

Gerald Ford was the finest unelected President a country ever had.

PS:

...the highly controversial Nixon pardon....

REPUBLICAN: Nixon was an unimpeachable character.
DEMOCRAT: Beg pardon?

[Deckard Canine]

He seems to have been the first President Joe Sixpack. Which is kinda good.

[Kerry Skydancer]

A good man, a vastly underrated president, and a class act. He put the country back together after Watergate, and restored dignity and honor to the office of the President after the damage Nixon caused. A witch-hunt against Nixon might have been more damaging than the Carter presidency, and it might not have - but Ford couldn't have known what a complete nimrod the Dems would nominate in '76, and it was a gutsy move. He did such a good job that he almost kept the office in '76 in spite of the pardon. He also refused to criticize his successors in office, no matter how much they deserved it, knowing that he didn't have all the information they did.

Note that he's barely cold and the Washington Post is releasing an interview that he wouldn't allow to be published in which he criticizes Bush's handling of the PR campaign on the Iraq War (and trying to headline it as if Ford didn't like the war itself.) He was a class act - the WaPo definitely is not.

[Deckard Canine]

restored dignity and honor to the office of the President after the damage Nixon caused

Alas, that dignity has never been restored completely for long. I attribute this to the fact that LBJ and Nixon had gotten the highest percentages of popular votes in U.S. history only to plummet from them.

[Earl McClaw]

restored dignity and honor to the office of the President after the damage Nixon caused

Alas, that dignity has never been restored completely for long. I attribute this to the fact that LBJ and Nixon had gotten the highest percentages of popular votes in U.S. history only to plummet from them.

From what I've heard on the History Channel's "The Presidents" series, that office has been respected and reviled almost since it's inception - sometimes simultaneously.

[Axelgear]

The only thing I know of Gerald Ford is the guest spot he did on the Simpsons where he said "Well, come over to my house and we can watch TV and eat Nacho's."

That's it.

Still, I take it he was a good man, and for that I say Rest in Peace, Mr. Ford.

[Deckard Canine]

From what I've heard on the History Channel's "The Presidents" series, that office has been respected and reviled almost since it's inception - sometimes simultaneously.

Could be. But my parents remember there being much more respect during previous administrations.