A. Ford WAS a conservative, or considered so at the time. The goalposts have been moved a fair amount in 30 years, between neocons and the rise of the religious right.
That said, Ford was a decent man.
B. His pardon of Nixon was wrong. Ford started his admin with one foot ethically in the hole. Made it look like a “deal” had been cooked up even if it hadn’t. Made it even look like a deal had been cooked to get Ford the No. 2 job the year before. And, as some other bloggers have noted, it set a precedent for pardoning criminals from the late-Reagan Iran-Contra affair and more.
See the paragraph above. As someone decent, I think Ford really believed the pardon would help more than it hurt, and he miscalculated personally, professionally and politically. AND Nixon showed none of the contrition that Ford originally indicated was a precondition.
C. The Helsinki Accords on human rights in eastern Europe? Half wrong. Perhaps it was the best we could halfway expect out of the half-senile Brezhnev, but we didn’t have to publically tout them. Combine that with Ford's "no domination of Eastern Europe" statement and that probably cost him the election right there.
D. The election. 1976 may not only have marked the end of an era of older, sensible, Gerald Ford and Barry Goldwater-type conservatism, it also was the end of an era of presidential campaigning. You won’t find a race that civil, and that relatively low-dollar, today.
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