Gerald Ford, the only man to become President without winning a national election, died Dec. 26, at the age of 93. Ford was nominated to the vice presidency and rose to the presidency after Richard Nixon resigned in the midst of the Watergate scandal.
Facing an uphill battle against a Congress and nation upset over the scandal, Ford’s actions as President had little lasting effect and he is best remembered for pardoning Richard Nixon’s involvement in Watergate. A moderate Republican at a time when the party was moving toward the Right, Ford faced hostility both from his own party and from the Democrat-controlled Congress.
Although Ford was the house minority leader prior to his nomination to the vice presidency, and his nomination was confirmed by a landslide, Congress’ anger toward Nixon and the Republican party in general made it difficult for Ford to accomplish much as president, Political Science Assistant Professor Joseph Lowndes said.
“Because he wasn’t elected and because of the bitterness after Watergate, he didn’t really have the warrant or the authority to do what he wanted,” he said. “He was a little restrained by the situation he walked into.”
Lowndes said that although Ford probably believed pardoning Nixon was the right thing to do to heal the country, the decision was met with such great public outcry that it ended up being the defining moment of the presidency.
Ford, along with Jimmy Carter, was considered a “tethered” president by many political scientists, Lowndes said.
“The idea was that after having an era of very strong presidents (Nixon, Johnson and Kennedy), we entered a period where presidents were very weak and didn’t get things done,” Lowndes said.
He said that although Ford was unable to accomplish much as president, his moderate political stance was also good for the nation in many ways.
“The country was exhausted by partisan fights,” he said. “It’s hard to imagine now, but the country was really in a period of real incredible disillusionment with government and at odds with itself. In those ways he did exude a certain kind of moral – a non-rancorous leadership style.”
The same moderation that many respected because it moved the country away from bitter partisan fights also alienated Ford from the Republican party, Lowndes said. The conservative wing of the party had been gaining power since Barry Goldwater was nominated for president in 1964, Lowndes said, and the conservatives and moderates were “really at each other’s throats.” Things were so bad that Ford nearly lost the 1976 nomination to Ronald Reagan as the party continued to move to the right.
“In the country and within his own party he had very little room to maneuver,” Lowndes said.
One conservative Republican who served in the Ford administration was now-Vice President Dick Cheney, who was Ford’s chief of staff. Lowndes said Cheney’s time in that administration may have shaped his decision-making process as vice president.
“While in the Ford White House, Cheney felt that the president, as a result of Watergate, had become weakened too much and Congress had taken too much control, become too powerful of an institution,” Lowndes said.
He said Cheney began to think about how to strengthen the presidency.
“During the Bush administration, he’s been singularly focused on expanding presidential power across the board, doing everything he can to establish a more powerful executive branch,” Lowndes said.
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Gerald Ford endured a difficult presidency
Daily Emerald
January 6, 2007
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