So, Gerald Ford has died.
It’s sad for his family and friends, of course. But what immediately comes to mind is this hilarious “Saturday Night Live” skit from 10 years ago, with Tom Brokaw (played by Dana Carvey) about to go on vacation and pre-taping various contingency headlines, including numerous permutations of Ford’s death. “Tragedy today, as former President Gerald Ford was eaten by wolves. He was delicious.” I hope someone posts the video online Here’s the video (thanks, Metafilter), and here’s the transcript.
Meanwhile, updating my New York Times obituary word count:
Length of Pope John Paul II’s obituary: 13,364 words.
Length of Richard Nixon’s obituary: 13,158 words.
Length of Ronald Reagan’s obituary: 10,757 words.
Length of Gerald Ford’s obituary: 8,109 words. (This might change as the obituary is revised for the print edition.)
It was not unexpected, and yet it is a national time of sorrow to hear that President Gerald Ford has died. I think that President Ford well served his country by granting a pardon to Richard Nixon in 1974.
There have been many points of view about the pardon over the decades but I still view Ford’s action to be one of the most sincere and brave decisions that any President has made in my lifetime. I grew up in the final months of Watergate and was fascinated as a child by the events taking place in Washington. I have spent the past 20 years as an avid reader and thinker about the life and times of Richard Nixon, and my bookshelves have more than 40 volumes about the man. As a result I have a very firm set of beliefs about the actions of President Ford when he granted the pardon. There is every reason to have wanted Nixon to be brought to justice, but President Ford understood that there was a difference between what the nation wanted, and what it needed. It was because Ford showed real leadership that our national nightmare did end.
It is a grateful nation that bids him farewell.
In many political ways (think FPolicy) Nixon was a great man, but also greatly flawed.
It’s important to remember that the first President caught (red-handed by our media and popular culture) crapping on the US Constitution’s Bill of Rights got away with it — all of it.
Ford is no national hero. He’s a typical American milk-toast whimp. –> He’s the manifestation of America’s cultural pathological addicition for domestic-peace over Truth.
When Ford pardoned that shadow of a man he also violently transformed the American political landscape for many future American generations. He lowered the bar of conduct (and prosecution), silently-but-loudly pronouncing that a President’s actions are less important than the stability and decorum of the office.
With his disgusting pardon he morally bank-rolled some aspiring future America Tyrant’s plans and robbed the the People of Justice and Truth. He was a weak, weak man who stumbled and fell when history called upon him to a service beyond ethics of his contemportary culture.
When weakness is appeased it spreads like a pernicious rot, both publicly culturally and privately in our ethical lives.
rob@egoz.org