Gerald Ford dies

[MFer 0]

per ABC World News Tonight.

[RepoMan 0]

Here's the ap storyFormer President Gerald Ford dies at 93

 

Pretty mediocre President, but RIP.

[Matt Young 0]

So many people in the 2007 death pool are fucked.

[Downhome 0]

Is it bad that a part of me is laughing because of SNL? Chevy Chase as Gerald Ford and then, of course, the "Tom Brokaw Pre-Tapes":

 

 

"Tragedy today, as former President Gerald Ford was eaten by wolves. He was delicious."

 

http://snltranscripts.jt.org/96/96dbrokaw.phtml

 

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8...144460734&q

 

It was the second thing that I thought of when hearing this news, I'm sorry.

[Ripper 0]

First thing I thought of when I heard the story and I am sure millions around the country did too because of that fucking Dana Carvey.

 

RIP and all, but he lived a long and full life.

[bob_barron 0]

I can't imagine having to run the country when he had to.

 

RIP Gerald Ford

[Lord of The Curry 0]

I'll mourn him with football and nachos......and maybe a beer.

[MFer 0]

He was an All-American center for Michigan in the 30's.

[Gary Floyd 0]

RIP Gerry.

 

That out of the way, guess my prediction of a 2007 death is fucked.

[RepoMan 0]

Is it bad that a part of me is laughing because of SNL? Chevy Chase as Gerald Ford and then, of course, the "Tom Brokaw Pre-Tapes":

 

 

"Tragedy today, as former President Gerald Ford was eaten by wolves. He was delicious."

 

http://snltranscripts.jt.org/96/96dbrokaw.phtml

 

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8...144460734&q

 

It was the second thing that I thought of when hearing this news, I'm sorry.

 

Lord of The Curry- I'll mourn him with football and nachos......and maybe a beer.

 

I'll admit these where some of the first things I tought when I heard the news. 1st time the Smarks board broke news to me.

[Bruiser Chong 0]

Well damn. Our annual family predictions produced ONE correct prediction for 2006. One day after the start of the 2007 one and there's already a correct guess.

 

R.I.P., Gerald. You've helped push my uncle one step closer towards collecting the winner's pot.

[Guest Vitamin X]

I'll mourn him with football and nachos......and maybe a beer.

 

My thoughts exactly!

[Red Baron 0]

I'll mourn him with football and nachos......and maybe a beer.

 

My thoughts exactly!

 

While watching the game too.

[SuperJerk 0]

The tragedy of the Ford Presidency was that he was basically left to fix the huge messes made during the Nixon Administration.

For example, my parents conceived me when Nixon was president, but I was born after Ford became president.

 

 

 

 

 

Chevy Chase recalls Ford as ‘a terrific guy’

‘SNL’ comedian became famous in the ’70s portraying president as klutz

Reuters

Updated: 2:21 p.m. CT Dec 27, 2006

SAN FRANCISCO - Comedian Chevy Chase, who became famous in the 1970s portraying Gerald Ford as an amiable klutz, praised the former president on Wednesday and said they later became friendly in spite of the biting comedy routines.

 

Chase, 63, was an original cast member on the trend-setting late-night comedy television show “Saturday Night Live” and frequently opened the show pretending to be Ford stumbling and falling. The parody in 1975-6 helped reinforce a popular image about Ford’s clumsiness, even though the president had been a star athlete in college.

 

“He had never been elected period, so I never felt that he deserved to be there to begin with,” the actor said about Ford, who died on Tuesday at age 93. “That was just the way I felt then as a young man and as a writer and a liberal.”

 

“Later on we became friends and he was a very, very sweet man,” Chase said in a telephone interview from a Colorado ski resort. “He took my wife and I on a whole lovely trip through Grand Rapids to show us where he had been as a child and what not. We kept in touch and he was just a terrific guy.”

 

 

Chase, who has since starred in many film comedies, said Ford helped boost his career, but said another politician could have just as easily become the comedic punching bag in such politically turbulent times.

 

Chase was initially hired as a writer, not an actor but the humor he wrote mocking Ford helped change that.

 

“I wrote all those Gerald Ford jokes and (producer) Lorne (Michaels) put me on the air,” he said. “Doing the stunt falls and stuff ... started me.”

 

“As far as making my career, it could have been anybody who had been a Republican after Nixon and pardoned him.”

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16370028/

 

Rest in Peace, Mr. Ford, and remember...in heaven, there will be no math.

[SuperJerk 0]

I remember reading about this in Reagan's memoir...

 

(Yes, its long.)

 

How Ford Almost Became Reagan's VP

In the summer of 1980, GOP nominee Ronald Reagan was urged to make former president Gerald Ford his running mate. In the end, he chose George H.W. Bush instead. The rest, as they say, is history.

By David M. Alpern

Newsweek

Updated: 3:08 p.m. PT Dec 27, 2006

July 28, 1980 - From the NEWSWEEK archives: July 28, 1980 issue.

 

All morning long on Tuesday, the powerful elders of the Republican Party paid calls on nominee-to-be Ronald Reagan. They sat on one of the two red sofas in the large living room of his 69th-floor suite in the Detroit Plaza Hotel in Renaissance Center—and, sooner or later, they all mentioned making Gerald Ford the party's Vice Presidential candidate. That a former Chief Executive would take second place on the ticket was unprecedented and had been rejected by Ford himself on numerous occasions. But now, with Ford scheduled to pay a call of his own momentarily, Reagan took the pressure from GOP pols as his cue for a move he was already contemplating. "These guys all say there may be a chance Ford would accept," he told a group of aides. "Maybe we're missing a bet if we don't ask him. What have we got to lose?"

 

Thirty-one hours later, a weary Gerald Ford came to Reagan's suite. As the Republican convention blared from a color television in the living room, Ford clamped an arm around Reagan's shoulder and solemnly walked with him into an adjoining room. "This isn't right for me and it isn't right for you," Ford said at last. "I can do more for you as a former President campaigning for the ticket than being on the ticket." Ford then returned to his own suite, one floor above, where Henry Kissinger was waiting. Ford spread his hands palm down like an umpire calling a runner safe. "That's it," he said. "I did it."

 

And so it was over—the climax of an extraordinary attempt to lure an ex-President onto the ticket of his former political rival. It was, in retrospect, a mission impossible that finally foundered under the pressures of time, conflicting personal ambitions and inescapable political realities. But it galvanized what started out as a fairly routine Republican National Convention. And it brought the nation to the edge of what could have been a reckless constitutional adventure: a redefinition of the nature of the Vice Presidency that could not help but redefine the nature of the Presidency itself. As rumors flew across the convention floor, as delegates and newsmen speculated feverishly over whether Ford would join the Reagan ticket, the two men's operatives labored to construct, in less than two days, something far more significant—a kind of de facto Treaty of Detroit that could have created a deputy President as chief operating officer of the Federal government, with the President as chairman of the board. In the end, perhaps mercifully, the project collapsed of its own enormous weight.

 

The entire courtship between Reagan and Ford began in improbability. Last month, when Reagan paid a bury-the-hatchet call to Ford's home in Rancho Mirage, Calif., Ford said flatly—publicly and privately—that he did not want to run. But at a strategy session in Los Angeles two weeks ago, Reagan decided to try Ford again. There were signs that Ford might be more amenable, some aides reported, and Reagan pollster Richard Wirthlin reported that Ford would help the Reagan ticket more than any other potential running mate. Reagan, moreover, was still uncomfortable with George Bush, the logical contender. "There's a lot of resistance to Bush," explained one Reagan man. "And it begins with Ronald Reagan."

 

 

With the convention just days away, Reagan believed there was no time to set up an unpublicized exploratory session with Ford. If it was to be done at all, it would have to be done in Detroit. The two men first met on Monday afternoon when Reagan and his wife, Nancy, paid a social call on Betty and Jerry Ford, who were celebrating his 67th birthday. Over champagne and Perrier water, Reagan gave Ford a nineteenth-century pipe and tobacco bag from a Crow Indian tribe in Montana. The inscription read: "These little traveling smoke kits are rare today, although much revered in pre-reservation days. They allowed two warriors passing on the trail to stop and enjoy a smoke in peace and wish each other good fortune on the dangerous trails that lie ahead." The peace pipe was the perfect symbol, and Ford later said he was extremely touched by the gesture. Ford tentatively agreed to share the platform Thursday with Reagan and whomever he chose as his running mate. "The Vice Presidency was not brought up," said a Reagan aide later. "That was Ford's day and we felt it was not appropriate to talk about the ticket."

 

Tantalizing: Ford still seemed as adamant as ever about not running again. He said so again and again over the weekend in several television interviews—talking up Bush and Howard Baker as the best running mates. But there were tantalizing hints otherwise. In a forceful and eloquent Monday-night address to the convention, he blasted Carter and boosted Reagan. And he added a suggestive line that his aides warned could be interpreted as a signal that he was available: "When you field the team for Governor Reagan, count me in." The Reagan people, watching on television, concluded that Ford was riper than ever for the plucking—if Reagan really wanted him. Reagan had trouble sleeping that night. "Maybe," Nancy said later, "he was counting Vice Presidential candidates."

 

If so, there were really only two on Reagan's mind: Ford and Bush. The long list of eight others * was little more than window dressing while the game was being played out in Detroit. On Tuesday morning, the party leaders paid calls on Reagan, Ford and Republican National Committee Chairman William Brock, just down the hall from Ford, to discuss the list. "Everyone had his favorite candidate," recalled Brock. But while Bush was the most logical choice, "everyone agreed that if Governor Reagan could get President Ford, that would be ideal." Some of the faithful simply favored the former President, others—the more conservative—saw him as their best hope for escaping a Bush nomination.

 

* Howard Baker, Jack Kemp, Paul Laxalt, Richard Lugar, William Simon, Donald Rumsfeld, Guy Vander Jagt and Anne Armstrong.

 

 

Reagan played his opening card when Ford came to his suite at 3:45 on Tuesday afternoon. They sat across from one another on the red sofas, a coffee table between them. A jar of Reagan's beloved jelly beans was on the table. According to a Reagan aide, the former governor was as direct as he could be without asking for a yes-or-no answer. "I would like you to serve on the ticket with me," Reagan said, "to run against and hopefully defeat Carter. I know it's a difficult decision for you. Likely it will involve some sacrifices. I think a lot's at stake as far as our country is concerned. Would you give it some consideration?"

 

Ford raised three major questions. First, he had his doubts about how a former President could fit happily—and productively—into the Vice Presidency. Second, he wondered whether the staffs of both men could work harmoniously in such a situation. "Ford recalled that even with the greatest good will between himself and [former Vice President]Nelson Rockefeller, their staffs screwed up every agreement they made," one Reagan man reported. Finally, Ford asked fellow California resident Reagan about the Twelfth Amendment to the Constitution, which stipulates that if the candidates for President and Vice President both come from the same state, the electors from that state cannot vote for both. Reagan was prepared for the constitutional question. He gave Ford a copy of a legal opinion he had commissioned on that subject, suggesting that Ford shift his legal residence (presumably to Vail, Colo., where he owns property, or back to Michigan). Ford took the paper, but said, "I don't think it will work"—a refrain he was to repeat a dozen times in the hours ahead. After an hour, Ford agreed to consider Reagan's offer overnight.

 

Revival: Immediately after the summit session, Ford began discussing the Vice Presidency with longtime aides Robert Barrett and John Marsh, both eager to fan the flames of a Ford revival. Ford also arranged to seek further counsel that evening from Kissinger and Alan Greenspan, former chief of the President's Council of Economic Advisers. They planned to meet after Kissinger's speech at a party on the yacht of John McGoff, a Michigan publisher.

 

As it happened, the Reagan camp had already tapped Kissinger to lend a hand in recruiting Ford. He had called Reagan's people to discuss his speech, but they soon asked him whether Ford would consider running. Kissinger said he didn't know. "We hope you will ask the President to seriously consider it," a Reagan aide said. Later, Kissinger, Greenspan and Barrett met briefly with the three negotiators from Reagan's side: Wirthlin, William Casey and Ed Meese. They gathered around a large conference table in the 69th-floor Reagan staff suite to discuss "how the Vice Presidency could be constituted in a way comfortable and fitting for a former President."

 

 

Compatible: Kissinger then went to deliver his convention speech—a Henry-in-the-conservative-lion's-den appeal for both greater military strength and negotiations with the Soviet Union. Kissinger, hardly an ally of Reagan's in the past, even allowed as how "the Governor's position is one I find compatible with my own." The Reagan forces had spread the word that Kissinger was not to be booed. He wasn't. But the convention was running far behind schedule, and Kissinger was unable to meet with Ford on McGoff's yacht.

 

Instead, Kissinger, Greenspan, Barrett and Marsh gathered with the former President in Ford's suite about midnight. Kissinger, according to Barrett, argued strongly that Ford should take the nomination and delivered an eloquent appeal based on the "national emergency" created by Jimmy Carter. "But Henry, it won't work," Ford replied. Kissinger insisted that the country needed Ford, adding that he didn't want "personalities"—meaning his own—to get in the way. They talked for about two hours, and the group left encouraged that Ford had not completely excluded the notion of running.

 

Just as Ford and his advisers were beginning their late-night session on the Vice Presidency, other Ford supporters were independently mapping their own strategy. Republican Chairman Bill Brock, Sen. Bob Dole, Governors Bill Clements of Texas and James Thompson of Illinois and several others went to Reagan's suite to watch the convention and chat. "Once [Ford's] name came up, that's all we talked about," said Dole. "I was surprised at the quickness with which Reagan picked up on it." Reagan mostly listened, then said, "Yes, I've given that a lot of thought, as you know, and it's an intriguing idea." Nothing was resolved when the meeting broke up about 12:30 a.m., but while Reagan did not openly suggest that the others press Ford, he was clearly pleased when they volunteered to do just that. Within minutes, Brock was on the phone to a variety of GOP leaders, asking them to have breakfast with him the next morning. "There is a possibility we may have something very unique happening," Brock

said.

 

Warning: On Wednesday morning, Baker, Clements, Thompson, Dole, Greenspan, Rep. John Rhodes, pollster Robert Teeter and others gathered for breakfast in Brock's top-floor suite. The weather bureau had issued a severe thunderstorm warning, and sure enough, a torrential downpour began, the sky turned seawater green and high winds shook the Renaissance Center building. Hotel personnel advised that the drapes be pulled in case windows were blown out. "We joked about where each of us should sit," Baker recalled. "The thought crossed my mind that maybe the Lord doesn't want us to start messing around with all this." Greenspan reported that Ford, on the "Today Show," had just left a "crack in the door" for the first time. "I would have to say on Ford's behalf that he surely cannot accept it as a normal Vice Presidency," said Rep. Robert Michel of Illinois. Rhodes thought the idea totally unworkable. But Baker and Rhodes were delegated to discuss it further with Reagan at a previously scheduled 9:30 meeting.

 

 

Reagan, by this time, was openly enthusiastic. "I wasn't there for more than 30 seconds when he was all over me about the Ford possibility," Baker recalled. The three men discussed what Reagan could offer Ford, including a Cabinet post (in addition to the Vice Presidency), although that idea was dismissed as difficult, if not impossible. They also discussed an office for Ford in the White House and a policy role as head of the National Security Council. "The main question was how do you make it worthwhile for a former President to take the job," said Baker. It was agreed that Brock's breakfast group should meet later that day with Ford—and that Reagan should get together with him as well.

 

Meanwhile, Ford's four horsemen—Greenspan, Kissinger, Barrett and Marsh—were opening what were to become lengthy and intricate discussions with the Reagan threesome—Casey, Meese and Wirthlin—on an "enhanced" role for the Vice President. Ford had agreed to the meeting, but not without a warning. "You tell them I'm not changing one bit, and be sure that's understood," he said, wagging an index finger at his liaison team. In their session in Reagan's picture-window staff suite, the Ford men talked about some of Ford's concerns, and the Reagan team agreed to put some of their thoughts in writing. "We've got to get something together to show you guys," said Casey.

 

Back at the Ford suite, the Kissinger group reported their progress to Ford. Meanwhile, Brock's group tried in vain to have him cancel all his regular appointments—a series of meetings with several newspapers and magazines. On the way to one meeting, Ford ran into Dole and Brock on the 70th floor hallway of the Detroit Plaza Hotel.

 

"This is getting serious, Jerry," Dole said. "You've got to let us talk to you at least, to hear all sides of the story . . ."

 

"You don't have to go through the litany," replied Ford. "There's no change in my point of view."

 

But there was a subtle change—and Ford first revealed it at his lunch with NEWSWEEK (page 25). While stressing his basic doubts about a former President serving harmoniously and effectively as Vice President, Ford talked about "meaningful participation by me in the major decision areas." He mentioned England, where the Prime Minister serves as head of government under a monarch who is Head of State. A better example might be France, he said, where Prime Minister Pompidou served as chief operating officer under President de Gaulle. Pride wouldn't keep him from serving as Number Two, he added, and he implied that the Reagan camp was trying to work out an offer to suit him. "All the initiative is coming from them," he said, adding that "nothing I've seen so far in any way alters my opinion."

 

 

Decoy: While Ford ruminated on the record about a reshaped Vice Presidency, Reagan kept the lid on at his end, denying that a Ford Vice Presidency had been discussed. Reagan diverted attention by taking three potential running mates—Bush, Kemp and Simon—with him to lunch at the Polish-American Century Club in Hamtramck. Pressed by reporters, Reagan said Ford's "last statement was rather definite to me about it out in Palm Springs . . . He said no."

 

After lunch, the Ford and Reagan negotiators met again in Reagan's staff suite, and the governor's men presented a two-page, double-spaced memo headed "Draft Talking Points." Written by lawyer Meese, based on an earlier version by Casey and political boss Bill Timmons, it drew on a variety of highly reputable sources—proposals by President Dwight Eisenhower, the Hoover commission of 1949 and the 1971 Ash-commission report on executive reorganization. "The paper was not an agreement—that's too strong a word," said Greenspan. "It was merely a statement that we were all talking, that everybody's view . . . would be roughly the same."

 

Superdirector: One proposal, said a top Reagan man, was for the Vice President to become "a kind of superdirector of the Executive Office of the President"—a collection of organizations including the National Security Council, the Office of Management and Budget and the Council of Economic Advisers. Would that make Ford a deputy President? "In a sense I guess you could characterize it that way," a Reagan man said later. "We knew of President Ford's interest in national-security affairs, budget and appropriations and Congressional relations." In this formulation, the Vice President would, in effect, replace the White House chief of staff. At the President's request or on his own, the paper said, the Vice President might take a major part in generating policy proposals from executive-branch agencies and Cabinet departments—relieving the President of much day-to-day coordination.

 

One thought was to have a single White House staff serving both the President and Vice President, so as to ease Ford's fears of friction in the ranks. "He's been there, and we recognized that," said one of the Reagan team members. "We felt some major changes would have to be made; the White House staff would have to be dramatically changed in terms of its operation and reporting function." The Vice President would also get his own office in the White House (which is also Vice President Walter Mondale's arrangement today). "You can't really coordinate the policy documents," said another Reagan man, "if you're not where the players are."

 

 

Ford's men quickly brought the paper back to the former President. According to Barrett, Ford thought it "a reasonable attempt to capture the essence" of his discussion with Reagan the day before, but he remained supremely skeptical. As he read the draft, it seemed to suggest that the Vice President would get virtually co-equal power with the President in making appointments. But Ford knew better. "There's no way I'm going to appoint a Cabinet officer," he told his aides. "Maybe there's a way but I don't think there is. But let's talk about it."

 

'Help Me Out': Ford, at another point, also said he would expect a number of his old colleagues to return to the government with him—and he asked if Greenspan and Kissinger would be willing to do so. "He said, 'Look, for God's sake, if I'm going to do this, would you be willing to come in and help me out on the economic side?'" Greenspan recalled. "And I said, 'If I'm sitting here and strongly suggesting that the Vice Presidency isn't a bad idea, I have no choice but to say yes'."

 

Later in the afternoon, Brock, Baker, Dole and other GOP leaders arrived at Ford's suite for yet another meeting. They settled down in a small bedroom. Kissinger and Greenspan were talking in a sitting room off to the side. "If things don't start to move soon, I'll throw my support to Henry," joked Dole. Betty Ford drifted in and out of the room and finally Ford himself appeared with a sheaf of papers. "Good Lord," he cracked. "Is Dole here again?"

 

For the next half hour, Ford reiterated his doubts about the idea while everyone prodded him to accept the nomination. He was still worried about staff tensions and about press criticism of a "gimmick" changing his residence back to Michigan or to Colorado to avoid Twelfth Amendment difficulties. "We're serious, Mr. President," said Governor Thompson. "What do I tell my unemployed workers in Illinois? That you can't make a decisive move in a Presidential race because of staff differences? I don't think anyone gives a damn about staffs getting along. I have to have something to tell my people."

 

Encouraged: Greenspan pressed Ford to take on an expanded Vice Presidency as "a matter of duty." Argued another participant: "Some persons have to give their lives, others make different kinds of sacrifices." "We discussed his personal concerns," recalled Brock. "He is really very happy with his life . . . He didn't want to be relegated to the obscurity of the Vice Presidency. So the discussions centered on redefining the role of the Vice Presidency." Ford demurred. "It all sounds great, but you know it won't work," he insisted. "The answer now is still no, but I'll consider it." The group was encouraged. "Everyone thought it was historic," Baker said later.

 

 

At about 3:30 p.m., the Republican leaders left Ford to press the issue further with top Reagan people, who briefed them on the talks between Ford and Reagan representatives. Another round was underway, this time in Bill Casey's yellow-carpeted suite on the 69th floor of the Detroit Plaza. There were no demands or conditions, according to participants, and no discussion of jobs for specific people such as Kissinger. "The discussion was handled in an academic way," Greenspan recalled. "I was in Detroit not as a member of the Ford staff but as a member of the Reagan staff. If I thought it was an adversary relationship, I wouldn't have gotten within 20 miles of the whole thing."

 

Reorganization: They discussed putting the Vice President in charge of the Federal budget—to work out the details under priorities set by the President, who would have final approval. "We knew we could in no way implement areas that were unconstitutional," Greenspan explained. "The President cannot abrogate his responsibility." It soon became clear that they were trying in a day's time to settle some of the most intractable organizational problems of the U.S. Government. "What we were looking at was not only how do you construct something for Gerald R. Ford," recalled Greenspan, "but we were discussing the problem of the size of the government. It's getting too big for the President to handle. A restructuring in the managerial sense is required." The difficulties were enormous, given the pressures of time and semi-public attention that by now were building up around the convention. "There were basic problems with respect to the relationship between Cabinet members, the Vice President and the President," Greenspan added. "It's extremely complex."

 

Ford met privately with Reagan again at 5:15 p.m. on Wednesday. According to Reagan sources, Ford mentioned Kissinger and Greenspan as "the kind of people" he would like to see in the Cabinet as Secretary of State and chief economic adviser, respectively. Reagan said that as governor he had always had his lieutenant governor sit in on meetings to discuss new appointments. The mention of Kissinger was "not a condition or a quid pro quo," a top Reagan aide said later. Reagan, needing more time, abruptly canceled his late afternoon appearances a GOP Hispanic rally in his hotel and at a youth rally in the nearby Henry and Edsel Ford Auditorium.

 

The turning point came shortly after 7 p.m. Ford kept a date for an interview with CBS's Walter Cronkite, and suddenly millions of television viewers, not to mention the convention delegates, were let in on the secret that the former President was seriously considering the Vice Presidency. At one point Cronkite, pursuing the "matter of pride," asked Ford, "It's got to be something like a co-Presidency?"

 

 

Rumors: "That's something Governor Reagan really ought to consider," said Ford. "Neither Betty nor myself would have any sense that our pride would be hurt if we went there as No. 2 . . . But the point you raised is a very legitimate one. We have a lot of friends in Washington. And the President-to-be . . . has to also have pride." Ford then gave a similar interview to Barbara Walters of ABC.

 

Reagan was astounded to see Ford speak so publicly about such a delicate matter—and not reject the obviously inappropriate notion of "co-Presidency." "I was a little surprised," Reagan said later, "because I had held my peace. But I suppose he had those interviews scheduled and he answered frankly and forthrightly . . . From then on, I knew it was a matter of open discussion." Kissinger and Greenspan were also taken aback. Ford's remarks "were totally unpremeditated by his advisers," said Kissinger, "and perhaps by Ford." The swirl of media reports and rumors that followed Ford's TV appearances stepped up the pressure. Most of the delegates seemed to feel that the deal was all but concluded, and Reagan operatives had to hurriedly shut down an effort by former Michigan Gov. George Romney to get a sense-of-the-convention vote for the Reagan-Ford ticket. Ford, however, was still agonizing. He wanted more time to decide and to firm up the details of Reagan's offer. "Things just started moving too fast," said one.

 

The prospect of a Reagan-Ford ticket spread like wildfire on the convention floor."It's getting closer by the minute," said former Michigan Sen. Robert Griffin. But the private talks were bogging down. As Reagan's men saw it, the Ford team—with or without Ford's approval were hinting that an "enhanced" Vice President be able to name Cabinet members, subject to the President's veto, and that he have a veto over some of the President's appointments. "At that point it became clear to us that you don't bargain away the Presidency," said one Reagan aide.

 

Ford's men claim they had no such intentions. "Governor Reagan wanted input into . . . the appointment process from President Ford," said Greenspan. "I recall we started out with 'mutually acceptable . . . mutual veto,' something like that. There were a lot of words which were used and then discarded." The difficulty, according to Greenspan, was not any particular dispute about responsibilities. It was that redefining the Vice President's role was simply

too vast and complex a task to be settled in such circumstances.

 

 

Gut: At about 9 p.m. Reagan placed a call to Ford, who was watching the convention on TV with Betty and eating dinner: shrimp cocktail, a small chef's salad, filet mignon and his favorite dessert, butter-pecan ice cream. Reagan said he did not want to wait until morning to announce his running mate, that the rumors were getting out of hand. "My gut instinct is that I shouldn't do it," Ford said, but he decided to caucus again with his emissaries.

 

Despite the fears that the Ford camp might be asking too much, Reagan still seemed seriously interested in an accommodation. And Nancy Reagan added her weight by phoning Betty Ford. "I know that Ron and Jerry have talked," Nancy said, "and I want you to know I'd be delighted if this could come about." Betty mentioned family complications, but added: "If Jerry wants to do it . . ."

 

Shortly after 10 p.m., the Ford and Reagan representatives met again for ten minutes and Meese said he thought the two principals should talk. By 11 p.m., Reagan sensed that he had to make a decision or risk an appearance of utter chaos. He stared at the phone. "Come on, Jerry. Call up," he exclaimed. Simultaneously, Ford's man John Marsh was asking to speak privately with Ford. The Fords had been joined by industrialist Leonard Firestone and his wife, their neighbors in Rancho Mirage, but Ford and Marsh slipped into a bedroom. Marsh made it clear the moment of decision had come. Ford quickly reviewed the bidding aloud for a minute or so, then told Betty he didn't think it made any sense. Betty said she would abide by his wishes, but that she agreed with his assessment. "Well," said Ford, "I'm not going to do it. I'm going to put on my suit and go down and tell Ron."

 

On the convention floor, many GOP leaders were confident that the dream ticket was still intact, and CBS's Walter Cronkite (page 76) even reported that Reagan and Ford would make a joint appearance in the hall. But Brock, after a gloomy call from Barrett, feared the deal had collapsed. Brock suggested that Baker and Dole get back to the hotel. "Try your best to salvage this," he said. "It was like a bad movie," Dole recalled. "Baker and I were caught up in the autograph crowds and the TV lights outside the hall. Then we couldn't find our driver.We hailed a police cruiser and he sped us back to the Plaza. [Virginia Sen.] John Warner wound up in the car with us. I don't know whether he knew what we were trying to do."

 

 

It was too late. Ford had already confronted Reagan with his decision. Reagan wasted no time on further deliberation. "I want to go with George Bush," he announced to family and staff in the room. At 11:42, he called Bush at the Pontchartrain Hotel. Bush, expecting the worst all evening, was glum. "Yes, sir," he began. Suddenly he flashed a thumbs-up sign to his family. "Well, in view of the events of the day, I must confess I'm surprised, but at the same time I'm pleased . . . I can campaign enthusiastically for your election and the platform . . . Thank you, sir." With that, pandemonium broke out in Bush's suite as well-wishers thronged in. Reagan then headed for the convention to announce the news himself. Along the way, his motorcade passed the police car carrying Baker and Dole back to the hotel.

 

'Beautiful': The word spread quickly on the convention floor. "It's Bush, it's Bush," the stunned delegates kept saying. Reagan appeared on the podium and confirmed the news: "We have gone over this and over this and over this and [President Ford] . . . believes deeply that he can be of more value as the former President campaigning his heart out, which he has pledged to do, and not as a member of the ticket . . . I am recommending to this convention that tomorrow when the session reconvenes that George Bush be nominated." Back at the Detroit Plaza Hotel, Jerry and Betty Ford watched Reagan's speech on TV. The former President, his shoes off, his feet resting on an oak coffee table, turned to Betty. "I'll have to say he handled it with class." Added Betty: "That was beautiful."

 

In retrospect, the entire scheme seemed domed from the start, and the wonder was that it went as far as it did. A handful of men were attempting nothing less than a behind-the-scenes restructuring of the Presidency in a matter of hours. The pressure was intense, and some of the negotiators on both sides may have felt a personal stake in the outcome. What prolonged the negotiations, and gave the prospect of a Reagan-Ford ticket a life of its own, was mainly the Hamlet-like indecision of Jerry Ford, so tempted by a possible return to power and a Republican restoration that he repeatedly entertained further consideration of a plan that, almost in the same breath, he repeatedly dismissed as unworkable. In the end, the man who best knew the Presidency and the Vice Presidency succumbed to a reality he had sensed all along.

 

Some loyal Republicans thought Reagan naive to believe that Ford could be comfortable in a subsidiary role—in the campaign or the government. Both men must have known that any bargain struck in Detroit would be unenforceable in Washington. If a Reagan-Ford ticket had been created and elected, it might have splintered authority in the White House and led to even greater rivalry and friction than normally exist in any Administration. It was a "dream ticket" that threatened a political morass and a constitutional nightmare.

 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16371870/site/newsweek/

[Lord of The Curry 0]

I love that Bush is getting smacked around from beyond the grave and can't do a damn thing about it. We need more people releasing secret interviews to be played after they die. Clintons, I imagine, would be the apex of all things awesome.

[Art Sandusky 0]

I'd pay to see a posthumous Bill Clinton shoot interview.

[Lord of The Curry 0]

"Oh, Hilary knew about that whole Monica thing. It's just that nobody else knew about the Monica and Hilary thing. And that one night in Topeka when it was the Monica, Hilary and Bill thing."

[Art Sandusky 0]

"I humbled Monica in the old country way."

[SuperJerk 0]

I love that Bush is getting smacked around from beyond the grave and can't do a damn thing about it. We need more people releasing secret interviews to be played after they die. Clintons, I imagine, would be the apex of all things awesome.

I'm surprised Ford's opinion stayed a secret this long. Clinton waited until people started coming after him directly before he commented on how screwed up he thought Bush's foriegn policy was, and I suspect that if he wasn't trying to rehabilitate his post-9/11 image to help his wife's inevitable White House run, he'd have kept his mouth shut even then.

[Downhome 0]

If this was a horror-fantasy film, that room would be used to bring him back to life. That's what I think of when I see him up on that alter thing, the light shining down, everyone standing around dressed in black. All we need is some druids to walk into the room.

[snuffbox 0]

Ok.

[Downhome 0]

A mourner just collapsed during the ceremony.

[snuffbox 0]

The Rotunda started to spin and he got dizzy.

[snuffbox 0]

Dick Cheney with one of the most ironic eulogies ever given.

[snuffbox 0]

It was former Representative William Broomfield that collapsed. Frist went to his aid.

 

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/12/30/D8MBH10O0.html

[snuffbox 0]

A few words on Gerald Ford...

 

Now, as another year passes into something new, we find ourselves watching another State Funeral from our own distances. Earlier this week Gerald Ford died at his home in California. His wife and partner in one of the great American marriages of history broke the news. I feel compelled to type a few words up as the news channels air the lengthy procession towards Grand Rapids, Michigan via Washington DC.

 

President Ford was one of the Good Ones. That is a cliché used heavy this week but it deserves every single repeat. He was handed by destiny one of the three toughest American Executive jobs of the last 100 years. In 1933 Franklin Roosevelt took the office amidst the Great Depression and had to walk on the international coals that were quickly starting to take flame into what became World War Two. On a September day just over 5 years ago a brutal attack saw much of the country and the world rally behind George W. Bush in what was both a present tragedy and a daunting future. Of those two men, one would succeed into legend and the other fumble the football of history like Leon Lett near the end zone. Gerald Ford took on the offices of both Vice President and President upon the embarrassing resignations of others at a time of great national heartache caused by a war in Vietnam and the paranoiac policies of Nixon that culminated in the Watergate fiasco.

 

Gerald Ford grew up out of a tough, abusive childhood, made it to the University of Michigan where he played center for two undefeated national champion football teams, and into the Pacific Theater of World War Two in the Navy. Ford saw action on Wake Island, the Philipines, and nearly died during a typhoon. Back from the war he married Elizabeth Bloomer Warren, Betty, and won the first of 13 terms as Representative from Michigan. While in Congress Ford served on the Warren Commission that turned in shaky conclusions on the murder of President Kennedy. He and LBJ disagreed on the Vietnam War and history has shown the victor in this tragic debate. His biggest goal in Congress was to be Speaker of the House but it was never to be.

 

In 1973 Spiro Agnew, a man with all the integrity of Baltimore’s filthiest winos, resigned as Vice President. Nixon picked the amiable Ford who was easily confirmed by his Colleagues on the Hill. Less than a year later Nixon took his creepy uncle routine out of the White House and Jerry Ford, who had not run for any Executive position, was the President of the United States. Left behind was one big grocery bag of manure for Ford to deal with. He saw the final withdraw of Americans from Vietnam and the fall of Saigon. He pardoned Nixon to spare the nation any further grief at the expense of whatever brief entertainment that Nixon’s tar and feathering may have provided and leave a foundation of respect and dignity to redeem the office of President. He also pardoned the draft dodgers who were not as skilled in that trade as Dick Cheney. The country was also deep in another battle with economic recession. Ford was like Jerry Quarry thrown into a ring with Joe Frazier, Muhammed Ali, and George Foreman all at once. A strong, unadorned image for the people to respect was the most needed commodity of the moment, and Gerald Ford provided just that if little else.

 

Though only President for a bit over two years Ford was on the scary end of two separate pistols in the hands of two crazy women. In Sept ‘75 Squeaky Fromme, a Charlie Manson acolyte, got within feet of Ford but was subdued by a Secret Service agent before being able to kill. It would turn out that the gun had not been operated in a proper manner and would not have fired anyway but Miss Squeaky remains where she belongs, in prison. A month later Sara Jane Moore tried her hand at assassination and was foiled by a bystander. In later interviews Ford would chuckle at the incidents, a response that lent ultimate believability to his statement that he remained unafraid to go out in public which he felt he must as President.

 

In 1976 Ford lost a bid for reelection in his own right to Jimmy Carter. Later, the two would become good friends. Ford was good for things like that. He was a uniter and not a divider in reality and not in rhetoric. His efforts towards healing a badly mangled country were of historic proportions even if he was little more than a solid respectable figure walking forth from the nasty turbulence of LBJ and Nixon. In his later years Ford would remain in his agreeable suit of average, levelheaded American. During a 1999 appearance on the Larry King Show he was asked about abortion and said, quite bluntly, that he and Betty are pro-choice and he doesn’t feel that it is a subject that belongs anywhere in the political sphere. In a 2004 interview he expressed his dislike for President Bush’s Iraq War policy. If ever there was a proper time for a ghost to return to the White House and bug a sitting President it would be the thoughtful Ford and now.

 

For many there are two iconic facets to the Gerald Ford biography. First would have to be his quote on the end of “our long national nightmare” and second are several enduring endearing pieces of comedy. Chevy Chase played Ford as a madly bumbling klutz on SNL (the two would become tennis playing buddies), another SNL bit with Dana Carvey playing Tom Brokaw announcing various horrific deaths for Ford (overdose of crack cocaine, eaten by wolves, chopped into little bits by the propeller of a commuter plane), and a quick spot on the Simpsons (he asked Homer to stop by for football, nachos, and beer after George Bush Sr. was run out of Springfield). When news hit of Ford’s death it was those four things that came into my mind first. I didn’t feel bad about the last three as Ford never seemed like the kind of guy who would get torn out of shape at being the subject of a joke. He was comfortable with himself, his marriage, and his importance in history. For those reasons Gerald Ford was truly one of the Good Ones. In the end he was not eaten by wolves but the legacy left behind will stand up as a delicious piece of biography.

[Red Baron 0]

Very good piece snuff.

[SuperJerk 0]

Dick Cheney with one of the most ironic eulogies ever given.

Details?

 

(I'll probably try to catch a replay on C-Span later.)

[snuffbox 0]

He spoke of all Ford's good qualities...thoughtfulness, levelheadedness, mature foreign policy, amiability, not a divisive person, etc...paralelled with Cheney/Bush's own Administration it struck me as very ironic. It was a nice eulogy though.