Well Done, Good And Faithful Servant

Gerald Ford has died. Off the top of my head, I can't think of a better man we have treated worse than President Ford. He agreed to take on an impossible situation and we then blamed him because the situation was impossible. (To get a sense of just how badly he was treated, go see OJ's memorial post.) That's not to say that some of the criticisms aren't well taken. In particular, Gerald Ford was part of the go-along-to-get-along permanent Republican minority in the House and never managed to shake the mind-set. Far outweighing these lapses, though, was his service to the nation in pardoning Richard Nixon and then taking the heat for that decision.

It is clearly true that it was President Ford's fate to be a lacuna. Yesterday, we were talking about how there could not have been a President Reagan without the hideous Jimmy Carter. In turn, there could not have been a President Carter without the loathsome President Nixon. But it didn't matter, much, who filled the gap between Nixon and Carter. It was our luck (more evidence of American exceptionalism) that an obscure congressmen turned out to be a decent man.

We should also note that the general perception of President Ford as a clumsy dunce was ludicrous; the first, and most successful, example of the modern mainstream media convincing us that their perception was reality.