How does everyone feel about Ex-President Gerald Ford?

Question

I wasn't alive during his presidency, so really, the most I know about him comes from my U.S. history textbook. But even in that book, there's not much about him except for the controversy he stirred after pardoning Nixon (if that's wrong, I apologise; I'm taking European History now and I don't remember a thing about US history).

I was just wondering how people who both like him and did NOT like him feel about his funeral. Would you still respect him?

When President Bush's time to go comes around and a national funeral is set up for him, would you still respect him? I know his presidency is not over and he still has a full two years to prove himself and who knows what could happen in that period of time, but lets just say that right here and now is climax of his presidency.

What do you think?

Please read all of the details before you answer. Thanks!

Answer 1

ford, was a good man, anyone in that postition... president of the united states... has a huge role that affects so many people. its not an easy job! plus ford was the only president from michigan, and as a michigander... theres a sense of pride.
and bush... well i feel for the man, hes had rough time, lots of nay sayers.... again... its a job that i wouldnt want... so i do and would respect him at his funeral

Answer 2

I was in my mid-teens when he took office after the Nixon resignation. I think the guy was the one who took the bullet for the nation. He knew Nixon was guilty, but didn't have the time to be in the court proceedings, given he was handed an economic and international mess. He really didn't want to pardon Tricky Dick, but, for the good of the nation, did so realizing it would cost him the future election. Many die hard Republicans would not vote for him simply because of the pardon.

One thing people haven't mentioned was the great blunder he made in his second face to face Presidential Debate with Jimmy Carter. Ford, in front of an entire nation watching, said, "There is no Soviet domination in Poland, and there never will be under the Ford Administration." That line lost him a lot of voter confidence! Yet, the election that year still went down to the wire, and the outcome was not decided until about 1:00 the next morning.

I live near Grand Rapids, MI, and hear about his laying to rest quite a bit on the news! I don't think I'm going to go the viewing. Overall, I thought Ford was a good president, and would have liked to see how he would have done if he had been elected, with his own appointed staff. R.I.P. G.R.F.

Answer 3

Gerald Ford was very much underrated in his time as president and I am glad that he has finally earned recognition for what he did. Was he a great president? Probably not. He was the 'accidental president' but that accident was sheer serendipity for the US. I do not believe that anyone else could have healed the nation as he did. His popularity skyrocketed at first, up to 70%. Then he pardoned Nixon. A pardon implies guilt so he was saying Nixon was guilty. But he knew that a trial would have dragged on for years and torn the country apart. He did what he had to, what he knew was right even though he knew he was committing political suicide. And that is what made him a great man. To aid the healing process, he took a bi-partisan stance, something later presidents could have learned from. He was an ordinary man given an incredibly difficult task, repairing the US post-Watergate. And he did it with integrity and courage. As a man, no later president matches up to him. And he was not clumsy.

Where Ford was honest and open, Bush is arrogant. He marginalizes anyone who disagrees with him. As men, Bush is not in Ford's class. As a president, Ford did what was good for the country, Bush does what is good for his sponsors, the big corporations. Ford will be remembered with affection, Bush will be hated for his dogmatic approach.

Answer 4

Gerald Ford was, above all else, a DECENT man. He's long been the subject of jokes questioning his intelligence...but I think too many people mistook his calm and steady nature as dullness. In every possible way, he was the exact opposite of Richard Nixon, and after the greed, the arrogance, the paranoia of Nixon's "Imperial Presidency", Ford was exactly the kind of man we needed to make us feel at ease again.
Many question the justice of his granting of amnesty to "Tricky Dick"...and personally, I would have LOVED to have seen Nixon and his accomplices dragged through the **** that they, themselves, created. But as much as I hated Nixon...I think the amnesty was a necessity for national peace of mind, and Gerry Ford did the right thing.
Though it probably cost him his only chance of being elected to the office he'd been forced to accept.

History isn't going to kind to George Bush. He deserves no kindness, or respect. If "now" is the "climax of his presidency"...then he really has emerged as the worst President in American history.

Sorry for the long-winded answer, but you asked such a good question!

Answer 5

His pardon of Nixon saved this country from a heart wrending process of a court trial. As bad as politics is today, it could have and would have been worse.
The wounds healed, and Pres. Ford had a great deal of
bi-partisianship from a Democratic Congress.

History has yet to judge Pres. Bush. His passing will produce the same National respect that every president receives.

Remember an old Indian adage?
"Do not judge me until you have walked 7 days in my moccasins".

Answer 6

He was a caretaker president with a decent reputation, but he wasn't a standout in his little over two years in office. I think he was more surprised than anyone to find himself President.
I don't respect Presiden Bush now, and I'm not hypocritical enough to allow myself to gloss his actions over simply because his time will have come. Its not just the war, by the way, it was his stands on policys such as birth control and the environment and the economy that left me disliking his thinking long before 9/11. A little too much 'rich and privileged' and way too little 'compassionate conservative'.

Answer 7

I liked President Ford. Even with the Pardon of Nixon. I remember the press harassing the hell out of him calling him stupid and clumsy. I remember the assassination attempt by squeaky Fromm. Then they elected Carter and we really learned what hell and incompetence was all about.

Answer 8

He did the right thing by pardoning Nixon even if it costs him the election.

Answer 9

when good men do nothing;EVIL REIGNS!!BUT WHEN THEY ASSIST,AID AND PERPETRATE EVIL,THEY ARE LESS THAN MEN AND EARN FOR THEMSELVES
THE INFAMY AND RESPONSIBILTY FOR THE EFFECTS OF THEIR ACTS ,GENERALLY, THAT THEY SO RIGHTEOUSLY DESERVE !! WHEN YOU LAY DOWN WITH MURDERERS AND ASSASSINS YOU'LL NEVER BE ABLE TO "CLEANSE YOURSELF OF THE GUILT AND SHAME OF THEIR ABHORRENT ACTS,USERPATIONS OF POWER,MURDEROUS MECHANATIONS AND IGNOMINITY!!