What Lincoln Might Have Said About Ford

The very first thing that Gerald Ford did upon ascending to the presidency was diminish expectations: "I am a Ford, not a Lincoln."

In making that simple comment, Ford was attempting to reassure a troubled and divided nation--low on trust--that he was one of us; he intuitively understood that the nation clearly was not in the mood to trust another politician. And despite the fact that he was one, he was able to make the case that that he was a neighbor; incapable of pretense, and lastly, although someone we might disagree, shared our common values.

In attempting to make the case as to why he should be elected President, during his nominating speech at the Republican national convention in Kansas City in 1976, Ford described what it was like to be the heir to Richard Nixon:

It was an hour of our history that troubled our minds and tore at our hearts. Anger and hatred had risen to dangerous levels, dividing friends and families. The polarization of our political order had aroused unworthy passions of reprisal and revenge. Our governmental system was closer to stalemate than at any time since Abraham Lincoln too took that same oath of office.

And then he described what it was like to be an "accidental President": "Having been Vice President and President without expecting or seeking either, I have a special feeling toward these high offices. To me, the Presidency and the Vice-Presidency were not prizes to be won, but a duty to be done."

The reason that he was not elected President in his own right was, of course, the pardon.

The obituary writers in America's largest newspapers today have been a little too dismissive of any critics of the pardon--even though objective journalism should have required that those critics should have had their say also. Ford's playing a round of golf right after issuing the pardon was also not only a colossal public relations miscue, but also displayed an insensitivity to those who sincerely believed--and had good arguments to counter Ford's that a pardon was not in the interest of the rule of law. And if he had not made his decision so abruptly, and without notice, but perhaps engaged the nation in a discussion about whether it was the right thing to do beforehand, he might have even had an outside chance of both issuing the pardon and having been elected President in his own right in 1976.

But whether pardoning Richard Nixon was the right or wrong thing to do, or smart or dumb, there was no doubt that Ford himself did so because he thought it was the moral and necessary thing to do for his country.

And although he made a remarkable political comeback after granting Nixon the pardon--he came very close to winning against Jimmy Carter despite having been down at one point 25 points in the polls, no one doubts that the pardon was his political downfall.

As the New York Times said of him in its obituary posted last night online: "He had sought to bind up the nation's wounds as much by instinct as by design. One of his earliest acts, combining courage with forgiveness, was to announce before a convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars that he favored leniency for Vietnam-era draft resisters.

Gerald Ford did not hold himself out to be the most articulate man.

The Times said of him as well last night: "His prose was so pedestrian and his tongue so unreliable -- he referred on one public occasion to the noble American "work ethnic" and on another to the disease of "sickle-cell Armenia" -- that he became a favorite target of comedians."

And yet he will perhaps be remembered most for these words, which have come to define to his presidency, spoken upon his taking office:

My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over. Our Constitution works. Our great republic is a government of laws and not of men. Here, the people rule.

As the historian Andrew Burstein has written in his book Sentimental Democracy: The Evolution of America's Self-Image: "Inventing a nation entails giving definition to the character of its people, identifying their compatible qualities and common understanding, cultivating a sense of moral community."

Every American President has understood that to perpetuate that idea of that has been an essential part of their job.

Burstein adds: "There can be no doubt that the American legacy has contributed passionate poetry to the ideal of a human community." And Ford's words did exactly that.

What would Lincoln have said of Ford?

Lincoln perhaps foretold the mortal consequences of his own actions as President as he left his home of Springfield to take the oath of office:

No one, not in my situation, can appreciate my feeling of sadness at this parting. To this place, and the kindness of these people, I owe everything... Here my children have been born, and one is buried. I now leave, not knowing when, or whether ever, I may return.

Ford's sacrifice for principle in issuing the Nixon pardon was far less than the sacrifice that Lincoln gave to the nation, but a sacrifice nonetheless.

Lincoln better than anyone understood the potential fate any President might face in carrying out unpopular acts in the service of attempting to bind up the wounds to heal a divided nation.

One of Lincoln's favorite passages from a poem is the one below from the poet, Alexander Pope. Lincoln was said to have sought solace in it when he was faced with making untenable decisions. It is quite possible that the same words might be said of Ford:

All nature is but art, unknown to thee;

All chance, direction, which thou canst see;

All discord, harmony not understood;

All partial evil, universal good:

And, spite of pride, in erring reason's spite,

One truth is clear, whatever is, is right.

Most recent stories by Murray Waas:

Murray Waas, "Tea Party Candidates Only a Democrat Could Love," Reuters, Oct. 27, 2010.

Murray Waas, "WellPoint Routinely Targets Cancer Patients," Reuters, April 23, 2010.

Murray Waas, "Insurers Target HIV Patients to Drop Coverage," Reuters, March 17, 2010.

Additional background about Murray Waas:

Paul Krugman, "Demons and Demonization," the New York Times, March 17, 2010.

Ryan Chuttum, "Reuters is Excellent in Digging of A Health Insurer's Tactics," Columbia Journalism Review, March 17, 20010.

Eric Alterman and Danielle Ivory, "Think Again: Blogosphere to Mainstream Press: Get Off the Bus," Center for American Progress, May 21, 2009.

Jim Boyd, "Editorial Pages: Why Courage is Hard to Find," Nieman Reports, Summer 2006.

Liz Halloran, "A Muckraker's Day in the Sun," U.S. News & World Report, May 15, 2006.

Howard Kurtz, "Reporters in Glass Houses," Washington Post, April 17, 2006.

Jay Rosen, "Murray Waas is Our Woodward Now," PressThink, April 9, 2006.

Dan Froomkin, "A Compelling Question," Washington Post, March 31, 2006.

Articles by Murray Waas:

Murray Waas, "Jack Anderson: An Appreciation," the Village Voice, Oct. 13, 2005.

by Murray Waas, "A Reporter's Bias," Huffington Post, June 26, 2006.

Additional information about Murray Waas can be found in this profile about him in U.S. News & World Report and in this profile of Waas by New York University professor Jay Rosen. Articles Waas has published in the National Journal can be found here, here, here, and here; articles in the Atlantic here and here.

Additional articles written by Waas can be found here.