http://blogs.southflorida.com/citylink_dansweeney/2006/12/gerald_ford_july_14_1913decemb.htmlI know I will go to hell, because I pardoned Richard Nixon.
— Gerald Ford, as quoted by Hunter S. Thompson
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One cannot offer a real summation on the legacy of the Ford Administration, meaning a look at the outcomes of its own policies and politics, for the simple reason that Ford was not in office long enough for his effect to be truly measured. But nevertheless, this ship of state has limped along, listing to one side, ever since then. We took on too much filthy, scum-ridden water under one captain. And when the next captain took the wheel, he refused to man the bilge pumps. The pardoning of Richard Milhous Nixon is a festering pustule on the body politic, one that has never been properly seen to. Had Nixon been held to account for his crimes — had justice been done — this country would be stronger for it. Future presidents would have looked at Nixon as a warning of what can happen when a president believes he is above the law. Instead, Ford demonstrated that the president is, indeed, just that. Instead of restoring honor, Ford, the first president of my lifetime, was the first in a long, duplicitous line of goons.
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But, under the radar, perhaps the biggest effect of the Ford presidency was this:
Ford with his Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, and his chief of staff, Dick Cheney
While Donny and Dick had lesser positions in the Nixon White House, where they got their starts in executive-branch politics, both rose to power in the Ford Administration. Without Ford, it's unlikely we would have seen them in power in the Bush administration(s). In a sense, Ford made these men what they are. He gave them their first real crack at inner-circle presidential politics. And so, here we are today. Thanks, Gerry.