Place Holder

It seems to me that the GOP should have been far more grateful to Ford. Okay, he lost a presidency that he received without ever being elected to Jimmy Carter in 1976. He probably saved the Republican Party. Without Ford's efforts in healing the nation from Watergate, removing most of Nixon's appointees from the cabinet, and, especially, ending the Vietnam war, it is unlikely that the GOP could have elected anyone to high office for decades. Now, that might not have been a bad thing, from my perspective, but Republicans ought to be far more grateful....

His was the last Republican presidency that was dedicated to decency, didn't play to religious fanaticism, worked for bi-partisan solutions to problems, and was dedicated to supporting the United Nations. Although considered more conservative than his VP Nelson Rockefeller, Ford really exemplified many of the traits that we associate with the term "Rockefeller Republicans." (He regretted to his dying day caving to conservative pressures to drop Rockefeller from the ticket when he ran for election in '76. His VP running mate, Sen. Bob Dole of Kansas, would later run for president himself, with no more success.)

,,,,Ford will never be one of my heroes. I think if he had won the presidency in his own right, he would have continued the Republican favoritism of business interests over common people--but probably not the ultra-harsh economic policies that began in Reagan's era. Ford will never be on any list of my 100 most admired politicians. But maybe he was the right person for the Oval Office for the time--and certainly he brought more honor to that office than either his predecessor or any of the GOP presidents since. GOP partisans who wish to rebuild their party after the November "thumpin'," (which, if the Dems don't totally screw up, will continue in '08--especially if we are still in Iraq) would do well to look to Ford as one of their models for a new kind of GOP politician--but I doubt they will.

[via Levellers]