Oliver Willis

28 Responses to “Ford”

1. 1 George W. Bush
   Dec 28th, 2006 at 1:50 am

   You forgot Chevy Chase! He forgot Chevy Chase!

2. 2 C.S.Strowbridge
   Dec 28th, 2006 at 1:54 am

   I agree, just cause someone’s dead doesn’t make he a great man all of a sudden. The guy is a trvia question at best, a cruel joke on the presidency at worst.

3. 3 Mickeleh
   Dec 28th, 2006 at 2:45 am

   You say Ford pardoned the worst president in history? I didn’t know he pardoned George W. Bush. You can’t call Ford inconsequential in the same breath that you say he elevated Rummy and Cheney. Them’s some pretty dire consquences if you ask me.

4. 4 Nimrod Gently
   Dec 28th, 2006 at 6:22 am

   He pardoned the worst president up to that point, put it that way.

   Salon says he was “ultimately an ineffective leader [but] the right person for the presidency in the wake of the Watergate crisis”, which seems fair to me.

5. 5 C.S.Strowbridge
   Dec 28th, 2006 at 7:30 am

   “the right person for the presidency in the wake of the Watergate crisis”

   How do they make that judgement? What did he do? What was the result?

   It seems like a Post Hoc argument. Ford became president and the nation didn’t fall apart and eventually moved on. Therefore, Ford helped the country move on. Maybe if he had let Nixon be prosecuted and go to jail the counrty would have healed faster. And maybe, just maybe, there would be less corruption today because someone paid for it in the past.

6. 6 Jay
   Dec 28th, 2006 at 8:15 am

   Therefore, Ford helped the country move on. Maybe if he had let Nixon be prosecuted and go to jail the counrty would have healed faster.

   Yes, the criminal trial of a former President really would have helped the nation heal.

   It’s all about respect for a former President, nothing more.

   When Carter passes on, he’ll get the same treatment, despite four years of a disastrous Presidency.

7. 7 Adam Herman
   Dec 28th, 2006 at 10:32 am

   But will he get the same treatment from Oliver Willis? I predict Oliver will be much more respectful when Carter passes.

8. 8 Oliver Willis
   Dec 28th, 2006 at 12:04 pm

   For better or worse, President Carter is much more consequential historically than Gerald Ford (and certainly the same can be said for Bush Sr., Clinton, Reagan and Bush II).

   Prosecuting Nixon may not have caused “healing” but it was probably the right thing to do. Frankly at the time, most of America wanted him out, except for the most diehard diehard of Republican conservatives.

9. 9 JWG
   Dec 28th, 2006 at 1:17 pm

   Frankly at the time, most of America wanted him out, except for the most diehard diehard of Republican conservatives.

   Carter won 50.1% to 48%. Are you trying to tell us that 48% of the country was made up of “the most diehard diehard conservatives”? Are you just making sh** up?

10. 10 Nimrod Gently
    Dec 28th, 2006 at 1:28 pm

    Oliver was talking about Nixon, moron.

11. 11 JWG
    Dec 28th, 2006 at 2:05 pm

    If he was talking about Nixon, then Nixon was already out of office (since the thread is about Ford). What did most of the country want Nixon “out” of once Ford was in office?

12. 12 JWG
    Dec 28th, 2006 at 2:20 pm

    Let me explain another way: Ford pardoned Nixon one month after Nixon resigned. Whether or not there was a pardon or a prosecution, Nixon was out of office. What does wanting Nixon “out” have to do with a pardon/prosecution?

13. 13 william
    Dec 28th, 2006 at 5:36 pm

    Ford pardoned the worst president in history? No. The worst president in history beat Ford in the ‘76 election.

14. 14 Mike
    Dec 28th, 2006 at 5:44 pm

    …Carter…four years of a disastrous Presidency. Jay

    The endless Republican smearing of Carter continues despite the fact that Carter was a better president that Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Bush Bush.
    Of course, when it comes to post-Presidential careers, Carter has been the best in the 20th and 21st centuries. Ford golfed; Reagan took a couple of mil from the Japanese and disappeared into his mental fog; Bush I went for the big bucks.
    That smearing continues into Carter’s current book for daring to call the Israeli abuse of the Occupied Territories for what it is

15. 15 Zython
    Dec 28th, 2006 at 7:51 pm

    If he was talking about Nixon, then Nixon was already out of office (since the thread is about Ford). What did most of the country want Nixon “out” of once Ford was in office?

    The streets.

16. 16 JWG
    Dec 28th, 2006 at 9:06 pm

    The streets

    Then why would 48% of the country vote to keep Ford in office even though he kept Nixon “on the streets”? Are we back to OW’s “most diehard diehard conservatives” again?

17. 17 Rory_Is_Freedom
    Dec 28th, 2006 at 10:26 pm

    If Jerry Ford excelled as a president, it was largely because he was the right man to serve in those dark days. The pardon was (and still is) controversial but it rightfully turned the nation back to a state of normalcy. Ford lifted us up from the swamp of vindictiveness and obsession. For that, I salute him.

18. 18 Zython
    Dec 29th, 2006 at 12:41 am

    Then why would 48% of the country vote to keep Ford in office even though he kept Nixon “on the streets”?

    A. 52% is still a majority.
    B. Ford did other stuff that outweighed some people’s desire to put Nixon in the slammer.

19. 19 Oliver Willis
    Dec 29th, 2006 at 12:57 am

    Please, please, please read some history. There’s a reason George HW Bush, then the head of the RNC made the unprecedented step of getting Nixon to resign. By comparison, George W. Bush is a very popular president. Only the most diehard of the far right wanted Nixon to remain in office. There’s a reason why while other presidents numbers may have bounced back post-presidency - notably Carter and Truman, Richard Nixon has lived on to be reviled by a whole new generation.

    You’re not going to get me arguing that Carter’s presidency was a good, much less great, one. But he got an electoral drubbing, much preferable to being shamed into resigning from office - a feat only Richard Nixon has been forced to do in our entire history.

    Gerald Ford did not excel at the presidency. He kept the seat warm, barely. He was the 20th century version of the 19th century inconsequential presidents.

20. 20 Dugger
    Dec 29th, 2006 at 7:53 am

    Ford was bad president, but Carter was clearly the worst president of modern times - maybe ever. The numbers don’t lie. More Americans suffered and lost under Carter than any other presdient. And now he’s turned into a pious near anti-semite. Isn’t that nice.

    We poo poo Nixon but he was relected in a landslide. Carter,a first term incumbent, was defeated in a landslide.

21. 21 JWG
    Dec 29th, 2006 at 8:33 am

    Only the most diehard of the far right wanted Nixon to remain in office.

    I don’t disagree with this. Heck, I remember it. What does this have to do with whether or not people wanted him prosecuted or pardoned (your main argument)? Once he was out of office most people were satisfied.

    52% is still a majority

    Actually, 50.1% is still a majority, which is what Carter got (one of the few Democrats to get over 50% of the vote in the last century– along with FDR and LBJ).

22. 22 St Wendeler
    Dec 29th, 2006 at 10:43 am

    Oliver - You do forget Ford’s Helsinki Accords with the USSR, which was the first chink in the armor of the Russkies as it demonstrated that they couldn’t allow dissent within their own country.

    From the wikipedia entry:

    Helsinki’s effects inside the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, however, were equally unexpected, and far more significant. [...] it gradually became a manifesto of the dissident and liberal movement’… What this meant was that the people who lived under these systems - at least the more courageous - could claim official permission to say what they thought.”

23. 23 Oliver Willis
    Dec 29th, 2006 at 5:04 pm

    Yeah, Dugger you idiot, Nixon was re-elected in a landslide then had to freaking resign because he was going to be removed from office for high crimes. Did you sleep through all of history?

24. 24 Rory_Is_Freedom
    Dec 29th, 2006 at 9:29 pm

    Oliver, try not to get your panties in a wad. Yeah, Nixon indeed won a landslide in ‘72 and received a strong mandate. Think of the reasons for this landslide. Then recall how Nixon’s associated actions during and after this landslide re-election served to mock and defraud millions who supported him. Even though I was too young to vote, I was one of them. Over time, the mandate to govern transformed into a mandate to resign. How ironic it was, to witness such a spectacular and deserved fall.

25. 25 Geoduck
    Dec 30th, 2006 at 5:12 am

    Something else that Ford should be remembered for, with approbation, is his explicit greenlighting of the Indonesian invasion of East Timor.

26. 26 Trulib
    Dec 30th, 2006 at 9:02 pm

    Let us not forget that Ford gave Indonesia the OK to invade East Timor and slaughter over 200,000 of their population.

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