His White House tenure was brief ? completing the second term of the disgraced Richard Nixon ? and he failed by the narrowest of margins to win election on his own in 1976. His biggest decision was pardoning Nixon; most of the rest of his time in office was spent on embarrassments like the Whip Inflation Now effort. Still, Gerald Ford, who passed away late Tuesday at 93, was the Necessary President.
America was torn apart by a decade of conflict over Vietnam, civil rights, the Great Society, Soviet military buildups, raging inflation and Watergate. Ford’s healing task was thus monumental, perhaps even impossible, especially for someone who never sought the office. If not for disgraced former Maryland Governor and Vice President Spiro Agnew?s resignation over tax evasion charges, the former Republican Minority Leader in the House of Representatives never would have become president. Yet he soothed the nation in his own bumbling way just long enough for the bitter passions of his era to cool so a hurting nation could move on. For that, America says thank you, Jerry Ford, and godspeed.
