Gerald Ford, R.I.P.
He was the only president to truly be "selected, not elected". But it's not as though he wanted the job, or even asked for it. He was minding his own business as House Minority Leader, a RINO in good standing, when President Nixon dubbed him as a confirmable choice to replace his veep, Spiro Agnew. Then Nixon himself had to quit in advance of the Donk lynch mob, and poor old Gerry Ford was left holding the bag.
Once the bag was in hand, though, President Ford did the best he could with it, which wasn't all that much. He obstructed the worst impulses of the Democrat Congress, but also continued Nixon's appeasement of the Soviet Union and Red China, and inflicted Justice Jon Paul Stevens on the SCOTUS.
Still, Ford's RINOism, as is the case for the breed as a whole, didn't earn him any slack with the DisLoyal Opposition, who lumped him into the villification chamber with Nixon after the former pardoned the latter. They weren't satisfied with forcing their archenemy to resign in disgrace; they wanted a public show trial followed, no doubt, by a public execution, guillotine and all. An American Reign of Terror, as it were, that Ford wisely and mercifully denied them.
The unintended consequence of this errand of mercy was the four-year national disaster that was Jimmy Carter. Though I rather doubt that any 'Pubbie, much less the man who single-handedly freed Poland from the Warsaw Pact (or something like that), could have prevented that act of supreme political self-immolation.
If I were to summarize Gerald Ford in one word, it would be mediocre. He wasn't actively obnoxious (other, perhaps, than when he tried to force a "co-presidency" on Ronald Reagan during the 1980 campaign), and he did try to do some good. And he certainly was a good and decent man of high character. Mostly he was a man too small for the time and circumstances in which he found himself. More than that, you could almost call him a victim of his predecessors' excesses. Ford was, you might say, the paper bag the nation breathed into after the hyperventilations of Vietnam and Watergate. And like most paper bags, he was unceremoniously wadded up and thrown away.
With all the inevitable effusive posthumous praise pouring forth today, it's probably going against the grain to say that Gerald Ford didn't have much of a presidential legacy. The truth is that he was an ordinary man who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and was unable to save the country from itself. National security having been crippled by cutting and running from Vietnam, followed malignantly by the reactionary Carter detour that brought the U.S. within a whisker of losing the Cold War, it was the election of Ronald Reagan that really began the process of healing the American spirit. Mr. Ford, in other words, was no Ronald Reagan.
His passing at the ripe old age of 93 does seem to be a bad omen of tragic history about to repeat itself. That will be a plank of his legacy least deserved, yet sharing the common thread of national insanity rampaging beyond the ability of ordinary men to contain.
If I were John Boehner, I'd be turning off my cell phone and blackberry for the foreseeable future - just in case.
UPDATE: So Mr. Ford told Bob Woodward he opposed Operation Iraqi Freedom but to keep a lid on that until after his death, huh?
Well, I did say he was a RINO in good standing. Looks like his membership card was punched to the very end.
UPDATE II: Dirty Harry to Ford family: "Drop dead."
Once the bag was in hand, though, President Ford did the best he could with it, which wasn't all that much. He obstructed the worst impulses of the Democrat Congress, but also continued Nixon's appeasement of the Soviet Union and Red China, and inflicted Justice Jon Paul Stevens on the SCOTUS.
Still, Ford's RINOism, as is the case for the breed as a whole, didn't earn him any slack with the DisLoyal Opposition, who lumped him into the villification chamber with Nixon after the former pardoned the latter. They weren't satisfied with forcing their archenemy to resign in disgrace; they wanted a public show trial followed, no doubt, by a public execution, guillotine and all. An American Reign of Terror, as it were, that Ford wisely and mercifully denied them.
The unintended consequence of this errand of mercy was the four-year national disaster that was Jimmy Carter. Though I rather doubt that any 'Pubbie, much less the man who single-handedly freed Poland from the Warsaw Pact (or something like that), could have prevented that act of supreme political self-immolation.
If I were to summarize Gerald Ford in one word, it would be mediocre. He wasn't actively obnoxious (other, perhaps, than when he tried to force a "co-presidency" on Ronald Reagan during the 1980 campaign), and he did try to do some good. And he certainly was a good and decent man of high character. Mostly he was a man too small for the time and circumstances in which he found himself. More than that, you could almost call him a victim of his predecessors' excesses. Ford was, you might say, the paper bag the nation breathed into after the hyperventilations of Vietnam and Watergate. And like most paper bags, he was unceremoniously wadded up and thrown away.
With all the inevitable effusive posthumous praise pouring forth today, it's probably going against the grain to say that Gerald Ford didn't have much of a presidential legacy. The truth is that he was an ordinary man who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and was unable to save the country from itself. National security having been crippled by cutting and running from Vietnam, followed malignantly by the reactionary Carter detour that brought the U.S. within a whisker of losing the Cold War, it was the election of Ronald Reagan that really began the process of healing the American spirit. Mr. Ford, in other words, was no Ronald Reagan.
His passing at the ripe old age of 93 does seem to be a bad omen of tragic history about to repeat itself. That will be a plank of his legacy least deserved, yet sharing the common thread of national insanity rampaging beyond the ability of ordinary men to contain.
If I were John Boehner, I'd be turning off my cell phone and blackberry for the foreseeable future - just in case.
UPDATE: So Mr. Ford told Bob Woodward he opposed Operation Iraqi Freedom but to keep a lid on that until after his death, huh?
Well, I did say he was a RINO in good standing. Looks like his membership card was punched to the very end.
UPDATE II: Dirty Harry to Ford family: "Drop dead."
posted by JASmius at 8:20 AM
<<< Home