cnn reporting Former President Ford has died

[Annoyedlistner]

Watching CNN now...they are reporting that Gerald Ford has died..........

[Regis Philbin]

I always thought Ford got a raw deal and he was treated very cruelly by the media and latenight comedians who joked about his tendency to be clumsy... :noway:

[Richard Tafoya]

AP:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061227/ap_on_re_us/obit_ford_31

Gerald R. Ford, who picked up the pieces of
Richard Nixon's scandal-shattered White House as the 38th and only unelected president in America's history, has died, former first lady Betty Ford said Tuesday. He was 93.

"My family joins me in sharing the difficult news that Gerald Ford, our beloved husband, father, grandfather and great grandfather has passed away at 93 years of age," Mrs. Ford said in a brief statement issued from her husband's office in Rancho Mirage. "His life was filled with love of God, his family and his country."

The statement did not say where or when Ford died or list a cause of death. Ford had battled pneumonia in January 2006 and underwent two heart treatments — including an angioplasty — in August at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

He was the longest living president, followed by
Ronald Reagan, who also died at 93. Ford had been living at his desert home in Rancho Mirage, Calif., about 130 miles east of Los Angeles.

[DoubleEdgeSword]

Life plays some funny tricks on people. Here I have been trying . . . for 25 years to become Speaker of the House. Suddenly, I am a candidate for President of the Senate, where I could hardly ever vote, and where I will never get a chance to speak.
—Gerald R. Ford



Ford was the first nonelected president. I'd forgotten about that. Ironically, if Nixon hadn't brought up the issue of VP replacement (his way, allowing the electorate to vote in a new vice president when one was needed in case of death, resignation or removal), the 25th amendment would not have been ratified, so that when Agnew resigned, the Speaker of the House , Cal Albert (D), would have ended up us our 38th President.

R.I.P. Mr. President.

[LesterX]

RIP, President Ford.

I always thought Ford got a raw deal and he was treated very cruelly by the media and latenight comedians who joked about his tendency to be clumsy... :noway:

Interesting comment from someone who worships a man that poked fun at a Parkinson's patient. I'm underwhelmed by your selective sensitivity.

[db44]

I'm too young to remember him as a president, and admittedly, the the first image that comes to mind when I hear "Gerald Ford" is the SNL skit: I was told there'd be no math in this debate.

From a historical standpoint, which is really the only way I can comment, he came into office under perhaps the second most turbulant times domestically for a president. He didn't have to oversee the healing of a Civil War, but he did have to oversee the healing of extreme civil discontent, both still seeing the aftermath of Vietnam and of Watergate. Most things I see and hear suggest he did as well as could be expected under those circumstance.

RIP President Ford.

[pinky]

That he did, Dave. I honestly believe that there was no one else in the Republican Party at that time who could have done what he did. It was an extraordinarily difficult period for this country, and he managed to get us through it.

I thought he was unfairly criticized for his pardon of Nixon. While Nixon was obviously guilty, and would undoubtedly have been convicted, the trauma to the country would have taken years to heal. Ford took the heat for the pardon, but his action allowed us to move on. Besides, I always believed that the one thing Nixon wanted more than anything was to be the President; once that was taken from him, no other punishment would have mattered to him. He wanted to go down in history as the greatest President of all time. Instead, he left in disgrace.

As for the media poking fun of Ford's clumsiness, how is that any different from poking fun at Junior for his verbal clumsiness? When you choose a public career, you become fodder for the comedians, whether you like it or not. Just as Junior is no (insert name of your favorite great orator), Ford was no Fred Astaire.

I remember my first time ever seeing SNL. I was getting ready for bed, having just come home from work, and I saw the President's face on tv, so I paid attention, thinking it was something important that had happened. Then the words, "Hello. I'm Gerald Ford, and you're not!" came out, and I was hooked!

RIP, Mr. President. You earned your rest.