Goodnight Mr. Ford

President Ford has died. I question whether an era has died with him.

While he was never elected to the executive branch, he was our President.

In his time he was resented for pardoning Nixon. But he saw the truth; Nixon was punished and humbled already, his history stained by trying to cover up the stained dress of his Presidency. While we would never have been able to prove that Nixon ordered a break-in of the Democrats offices, he did use the full force of his office to avoid the backlash that would come from such a stupid action. Progress was not going to be served by picking and the wounds. So Ford felt the quickest way for the nation to get on with life, was NOT a long drawn out political battle, with posturing on both sides, and a mockery of our courts, but to just let Nixon get on with his exile and humiliation, and the nation get back to more important things.

That act probably cost him the Presidency, and he probably knew that was the price he must pay, for the good of the nation. I bow to his self sacrifice, and wisdom in realizing that nothing would be served by a bloodletting… while being savy enough to know the likely ramifications. Sometimes no good deed goes unpunished — but that doesn’t change our obligation to try to do the right thing.

For that there was the accusation by the partisans of deal-making. (An unlikely sequence of events).

What I remember is that the Press mocked Ford mercilessly. Ford was one of most athletic Presidents ever, with a respectable college football career, but because he slipped once on the steps of Airforce-one, they focused on ever stumble, trip or slip to make him appear as an uncoordinated dolt. Which I think shamed the press and demonstrated their bias more than any truth.

One thing I respected that also seems to have died is the tradition of Presidents shutting up and letting proceeding Presidents govern without their constant harping and second guessing. Something I respected Ford for (for honoring the office more than his own personal interests), and something I respect Clinton and Carter for less and less, each time their open up their partisan pie-holes.

So with the death of Ford, I think we also are seeing the death of some other things as well. And somehow, I don’t feel the nation is better because of it. Goodnight Mr. President.