Gerald R Ford America's Only Unelected President
The USA’s 38th President Impacts November 2008 Elections
Jul 30, 2008
Gerald R. Ford was never elected to either the position of President or Vice President of the USA. He was nominated to the post of Vice President after the resignation of Nixon VP, Spiro Agnew of Maryland. Indicted on extortion, tax fraud, bribery and conspiracy charges, Agnew's resignation opened the way for Ford. 34 years ago this August, with the resignation of Richard Nixon as President, Ford became the 38th President, the first unelected President of the United States and according to The Independent Voter “the last great Republican President."
A member of the Warren Commission investigating the death of President John F. Kennedy, Ford spent decades doing what historians feel was the proper (if not the political) thing to do. While Ford’s administration was criticized for many things (among them the pull out of Saigon by American troops), Ford personally was known as a “gentleman with courage." He not only nominated a “rational” Supreme Court justice (John Paul Stevens) but also healed the nation by taking the unpopular decision of pardoning Nixon.
Today's Impact –
The Ford years were influenced by turmoil in foreign and domestic policy. The USA had suffered what was considered the first military defeat in its history and abuse of Presidential power was placed squarely in front of the average American on nightly news programs by the newly empowered, omnipresent media.
Harold Meyerson wrote in The American Prospect "For Dick and Don…the frustrations of the Ford years have been compensated for by the abuses of the Bush years." Dick is Dick Cheney and Don is Donald Rumsfeld who were the youngest chief of staff (34) and Defense Secretary (42) under Ford.
Yet another player emerged under that administration that has a stronger influence today. A 50 year old George H. W. Bush was named the head of the CIA under the Ford Presidency and as Jon Wiener wrote in The Nation on 12/27/2006 “Thus you could also credit…Ford with launching the Bush dynasty.”
Election 2008 –
Is the Bush Legacy part of the referendum of the election of 2008? Dennis Byrne, Chicago Tribune op-ed columnist wrote in Real Clear Politics on January 27th 2007: “America, exhausted from bitter partisan battles, extremist politics, consuming power-lust and all around nastiness, now hunger…for a government graced with the decency, honesty, compassion, moderation and neighborliness of a Gerald Ford….Obama has established himself with…his down-to-earth values and his sincerity.”
A fundamental theme of the 2008 election is Obama’s positive change verses McCain’s tested history. As time progresses examination of many of the issues that existed in the early 1970s have surfaced again in the 2000s and many ask whether there is a 2008 referendum?
Comparison –
In 1974, while not a presidential election year, the nation was ending an unpopular war. A vilified President was run from office and consumer confidence was at an all time low. In 2008 these same factors exist and while Ford was blamed in the 1976 election for those problems, so too may McCain be straddled with the Bush dilemma. Will it be a referendum on the “power-lust and all around nastiness” of the Republican Party (as in Ford's case) or the man?
Dennis Byrne continued: “So, what to make of Obama-Ford comparisons, which…have revealed Ford to be the kind of politician that everyone ought to be?” It may not simply be an Obama-Ford comparison but a McCain-Ford comparison as well. For Obama, it is a comparison of the gentleman Ford but for McCain it may be a comparison to the Ford who lost the 76 election. Had Bush resigned in 2006 and McCain (somehow) became President; maybe the 2008 election would take on a more complete replay of the 1976 contest - with history revealing the outcome?
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