Gerry Ford is one of the four Presidents I’ve seen albeit before he became President. He spoke to the summer interns in 1971 when I was in Washington and welcomed us to D.C.
I was very partial to Ford and when Ronald Reagan attempted to wrest the GOP nomination from him in 1976 I was a strong Ford partisan. I always blamed Bob Dole for his defeat even though most people blamed his loss on the Nixon pardon. I thought the pardon was the right thing to do.
I just read this bruising critique of Ford by Christopher Hitchens which is worth a read. Whenever everyone starts starts acting like a herd (and almost everyone has been saying nice things about Ford) its worth paying attention to the dissenters. Hitchens hasn’t changed my mind though. I’m still a Ford fan.
