President Ford

I am sad to hear about the death of President Gerald Ford. I’ve always been fascinated with Watergate, and Ford’s emergence as our President at the end of that scandal is, to me, one of the most interesting occurrences in our history. I admired Ford because the way he became President is the way the majority of us could even remotely see ourselves landing the job -- through pure serendipity. And he handled it well. Ford’s presidency may not have been the most dynamic, and he may personally have been easy to poke fun at -- but he kept the country’s crap together when we really needed someone to -- and that is to be respected.

I suppose he’ll be best remembered (and perhaps reviled) for pardoning Nixon. But it was the right thing to do. It guaranteed him a short term in office, but it was an act of political courage that I doubt many of our elected leaders today would have the spine to see through.

RIP, Jerry.