Gerald Ford, 1913-2006

Former President Gerald R. Ford died yesterday, December 27th, at the age of 93. President Ford was the oldest living President who served one of the shortest periods of time of any President. He was also the only President to not be elected either President or Vice President. In other words, he was a very unique man.

Furthermore, he served at a unique time, rising to power in the wake of Watergate and having to deal with the turmoil of the Vietnam War. He also faced the twin challenges of high inflation and high unemployment, also knows as "stagflation." This was a difficult time indeed. However, in spite of all these challenges, he served us well and did his absolute best to heal the serious wounds our nation suffered from and I believe he succeeded greatly in a short period of time.

I admit, some of his efforts were more rhetoric than substantive (his policy against inflation was to wear buttons that said "WIN" meaning Whip Inflation Now), but his willingness to mend fences and his desire to make things better were obvious.

I believe President Ford was actually a Conservative in the traditional sense of the word. He was trying to conserve limited government, even though government was anything but "limited." He was trying to fight fiscal irresponsibility through more taxes, which only added fuel to the inflation fire. He didn't make many new policy proposals in the short period he was in power, but he used his veto pen with force, shooting down more legislation than any other President in a similar time frame. President Ford had the second most vetos of any President since Dwight Eisenhower. Ronald Reagan, who had the most in that era, only had 12 more vetos than Ford's 66, yet he served almost 4 times longer. The current President Bush has had only 1 veto in his 6 years. I remember Ford speaking at the 1976 Republican National Convention and saying with pride that the use of the veto was an example of his Conservative philosophy, and he was right.

I believe the thing that President Ford is going to be remembered for most is that he was a very decent human being. He didn't like to say ill of others, he was extremely humble, and always seemed to put the interests of others above himself. I don't think such a person could be elected today. Than again, he wasn't elected back then. Humility and the presidency just don't seem to belong together. Ford was a great man in his own right. We are a better nation because of him.