Gerald R. Ford Jr. 1913-2006

President Gerald R. Ford Jr. has passed away at the age of 93. In the course of his life, he faced tough choices on a number of occasions. The one that immediately comes to mind would put him in the history books forever, and played a role in ending his political career. One that you may not know about was right after he graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in economics. He was offered a chance to play professional football (the Packers and the Lions both wanted him) but chose instead to take a job at Yale as an assistant football and boxing coach and the chance to attend law school there. (He did not begin taking classes at Yale until three years later.) While it is true that professional football in the '30s is a world away from today's NFL, it still was a matter of turning down something that many people would have jumped at in favor of a chance at something bigger.

Then in 1942, before he can even get his law career off the ground, he answers his country's call and volunteers for duty in the U.S. Navy. This came even as he had been staunchly opposed to American involvement in the war in the '30s at Yale. He served honorably, and upon his discharge he returned to Michigan where he quickly became involved in the local political scene.

President Ford never sought the highest office in the land. He was, as television reporters are discussing this evening, a "man of the House." It was his work in the House of Representatives that he made his name as "a moderate in domestic affairs, a conservative in fiscal affairs, and a dyed-in-the-wool internationalist in foreign affairs." (Notice the touch of irony in his referring to himself as a "dyed-in-the-wool" internationalist when he had been an isolationist at Yale.) His leadership in that role led to his selection by President Johnson to the Warren Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy. Through the '60s and early '70s, he was a big name in the Republican party with the likes of Goldwater, Dirksen, Reagan, and Nixon. When Spiro Agnew resigned as vice-president, Nixon needed to nominate a replacement. Most of all, he needed someone who could pass muster with congress quickly. Ford rose to the top of the list of big names--most of whom would have faced more congressional opposition. Upon Nixon's resignation a few months later, Ford became the first president in U.S. history who had not been elected to either the office of president or vice-president.

It was at this moment that he had his greatest choice to make. He chose to pardon his predecessor. This was a risky move. Some would say that it cost him the election in 1976, and this is likely true. But thirty years on it is widely regarded as the right decision, and one which has caused his stature in the pantheon of presidents to increase with the passage of time. It has been that passage of time that has allowed the world to see now what he saw clearly then--that prolonging the Watergate scandal would not have been in the best interest of the country. In a very real sense, American politics has still not recovered from Watergate. How much worse would it be if investigations, trials, and appeals would have dragged on into the '80s. President Ford said it best when he pronounced, "It could go on and on and on, or someone must write the end to it. I have concluded that only I can do that, and if I can, I must."

This accidental president then set about the task of governing a nation whose faith in its leaders had been shattered, whose involvement in a foreign conflict was ending badly, and whose domestic economy was plagued with problems. As would later state when he accepted his party's nomination in 1976, "To me, the Presidency and the Vice-Presidency were not prizes to be won, but a duty to be done." This wasn't false modesty, but true humility--one of President Ford's defining characteristics.

One of his early tasks was to fight inflation. In October 1974, only two months after taking office, Ford presented a 10 point plan to, as he put it, "Whip Inflation Now (WIN)." Looking back on the proposal, we see that he got some things right, but of course it wasn't until the Federal Reserve got serious about things that inflation really started to come under control. Ford wanted to remove acreage restrictions on farming, improve enforcement of antitrust laws, and improve energy conservation. He rejected price controls (a welcome departure from Nixon's policies) and even called for increased taxes (though he later called for tax cuts). All of these were steps in the right direction for a number of reasons (many of which not having to do with inflation) but it wasn't great strategy. Asking people to walk to work and waste less food was not going to cut it when M2 money stock was growing at double-digit rates. Economically speaking, it wasn't a shining moment.

The most unfortunate aspect of this episode was that it set Ford up for failure on the domestic economic front. The economy was beginning to suffer a productivity slowdown, the extent and severity of which was unknown to anyone at the time. Capital markets were still reeling from the collapse of Bretton Woods, and the table was being set for something that would come to be known years later as the S&L crisis. Creating an expectation in the public that inflation could be brought under control in a matter of months and that this would solve the country's problems was wishful thinking at best. That said, it is hard to find fault with his effort to increase tax revenue while getting federal spending under control. Likewise, he made strides towards deregulation that would be continued by his successors. And even as the public ridiculed "WIN", inflation did come down from double-digit levels, although this was due more to a stabilization of world oil prices rather than the specific "WIN" suggestions.

President Ford's term in office was short, and there was little time to effect large scale change. But he set a tone with his presidency. His term, short though it may have been, was the antithesis of the Nixon administration. President Ford was open to the press. He may have vetoed many bills, but he knew the art of compromise. He held to the principles that guided him through a quarter-century in the House of Representatives. His pardon of Nixon was not the only way in which he put the nation's interests ahead of his own.

The more you study President Ford, the more you get a picture of a man who had a long-run vision. This manifested itself early in his drive to get into Yale Law School. Such people tend to be more successful in congress than in the White House. He would have been an unlikely candidate anyway. Reagan would have been a more likely candidate in 1976 had Nixon remained in office. By conventional standards, he was not a successful president. But he walked into a very unconventional situation. Nixon had done much to damage the office as well as the political process--the damage lingers to this day. Ford stepped in as a moderate transition to what was to follow, and in so doing he played an invaluable part in putting the country back on track. History's opinion of him is likely to continue to rise in the coming years.

I should also point out that President Ford was another in a quickly disappearing set of leaders and intellectuals who could be strong in their beliefs and partisan loyalties without resorting to the kind of dirty politics that led to Nixon's downfall and continue to crop up today. It is particularly fitting to note this in a year that has also seen the passing of John Kenneth Galbraith and Milton Friedman. All three of them embodied a sort of genteel aspect of American political discourse that, while not dead, is becoming harder to find. For President Ford's part, this attitude was developed through his years as a minority leader. As he explained upon receiving John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award,

I have always believed that most people are mostly good, most of the time. I have never mistaken moderation for weakness, nor civility for surrender. As far as I'm concerned, there are no enemies in politics--just temporary opponents who might vote with you on the next Roll Call.

I want to believe that it is still possible to live by this maxim. There would be no more fitting tribute to President Ford than to try to uphold it.

Ford Memorial Website
Ford Presidential Library
Ford Biography at the White House website