Let’s talk about Gerald Ford

Perhaps because he wasn't elected as president.

I was working as a copy editor at a daily newspaper when Ford died. We had just finished putting the paper to bed when the news came across the AP wire. I got to yell at the press operator, "Stop the presses!" That felt great. Of course, since this was in Nebraska and Ford was born there, the news ran above the fold on page A-1.

It was pretty well covered and everyone talked about him quite a bit and he lay in state for three days. Whatmore needed to happen for an unelected inactive ex president who was 93 years old.l?

It was big news, OP. So you're just another proclaimer of false assertions, something you learned from spammy clickbait.

How nice for you.

Did he comment on the politics at all in his later years? Did anyone even bother to ask him?

R3 I know what the fuck I am talking about. I remember hearing about but nothing like Reagan or previous presidents death. I googled and now I remember. His death was completely overshadowed by soul icon James Brown who died the day before.

R6 Yes, I know how that feels.

Ford was a placeholder.

It was- perhaps not to you.

Two words: autoerotic asphyxiation.

He knows why.

Betty Ford was the bigger newsmaker in that family.

Ford was the accidental president. He was never on the public's radar - at all - until he was suddenly appointed VP following Spiro Agnew's indictment and resignation - and then ascended to the presidency when Nixon resigned. Ford is the only person to become U.S. president without winning an election for president or vice president.

It was big news to me -- Federal employees always get a day off when a former President dies.

Good thing for Ford that his death long predated the rise of Trump. Ford was praised at death largely for his politically suicidal decision to pardon Nixon. By his death, his once heavily criticized decision had been seen as a sacrificial act to bring the country together. See JFK Profile in Courage Award. But this reconsidered judgment took a massive hit with the Trump presidency. That is, if Nixon had been prosecuted, convicted & imprisoned that may have been a deterrent to the likes of Trump.

His funeral was most certainly covered here on DataLounge. I remember that the big question was why Margot Kidder was present. A poster responded, "That wasn't Margot Kidder, that was Lois Lane reporting on the funeral for the Daily Planet!"

R6 clearly you're a moron. He was an accidental president who other than pardon me Nixon did really nothing of notes and hadn't been visible in the public eye in at least 30 years why would he get as much coverage as Reagan who was responsible for a lot of policies that are still being felt due to the massive amount of damage that he caused the country. Not to mention he was in office for 8 years possibly suffering from Alzheimer's for a good part of that. There was much more of a legacy to be talked about and focus on versus Ford who had a less wife and did little else of note.

R17 Who the fuck are you name calling cunt. You do realize I got time today.

Ford, R17, bucked his party in 1998 by penning a NYT op-Ed recommending that Clinton be censured, not impeached.

Gerald and Betty Ford are my favorite President/First Lady. I have admired them ever since I was a kid.

They were both known for being great down-to-Earth people who treated everyone kind and graciously. They would never say anything bad about anyone. He was trusted and well liked in Congress. A man of his word. That is why he was confirmed 93-2.

He was inherited Watergate, high inflation, high unemployment, an oil crisis, a Middle Eastern crisis, and the terrible Vietnam War. He tried his damned to get the country back on track and restoring faith in America.

A moderate Republican, he understood real issues by real people, like abortion, the ERA, and healthcare. He put John Paul Stevens on the Supreme Court. He believed in protecting the environment. He was also a fiscal conservative who told New York to "drop dead" when they were asking for a bailout. On the international stage, he helped negotiate the Helsinki Accords, which protected the Baltic States from the Soviet Union. He also pulled out of Vietnam in the best possible way after ten years of disaster.

In short, he was the right man at the right time. He should get more credit. He is exactly what our country needed from 1973 to 1977.

I thought it was but I’m from West Michigan so we got extensive local and national coverage,

The Zeppo of US presidents.

R18, your having ego-stroking dementia and verbal incontinence all over the DL is no reason for us to accept your false claims about the death of Gerald Ford and its appearing in the news, you cunt.

Make that "you self-regarding cunt of a miserable nuisance."

R5 Actually Gerald Ford did publicly comment on politics thrice in the early 2000's:

First, he was asked about the legacy of John Paul Stevens, a moderate Republican who became part of the the Court's liberal wing. Ford said "he is serving his nation well, with dignity, intellect and without partisan political concerns."

Second, when the Supreme Court was going to hear Grutter v. Bollinger, which was about the University of Michigan Law School's affirmative action policies. He made a statement in favor of it.

Third, he said that gays and lesbians should be "ought to be treated equally. Period."

It was hard to tell he was gone.

I'd prefer to talk about Steven Ford (far right) free-balling on the White House Lawn.

Charlie and I only drove Fords. I’m surprised the inventor of the Fire didn’t get more attention when he died. Was it a car accident?