It’s interesting to see how much contrary opinion Gerald Ford kicks up even more than thirty years after the events that will forever define him in American history — the denouement of the Watergate scandal and his presidency which was inevitably defined by it. In noting his historically low approval ratings in the post below I had actually meant primarily to point out that this seems like a harsh measure for his presidency — since he was coming off a low-point in public trust in the presidency and didn’t serve long enough to rebound in public estimation. One TPM Reader wrote in demanding that I take the post down because it was inappropriate to discuss these statistics on the day after Ford’s passing. I definitely don’t agree with that, especially when I was interpreting them in the way I was. Quite a few more, however, wrote in to say that there’s nothing unfair about this measure in the least since Ford’s presidency itself, in their view, was born in the corrupt bargain he struck with President Nixon over his subsequent pardon.
For my part, I can’t help but see Ford in a basically positive light and think he did the country an important service in balancing the ship of state after the trauma and shame of the Nixon years. But I’m curious how much that view is tied to my not having lived (or lived with sufficient awareness — I was 5 and 6) through the period. Thoughts?
