Wednesday, December 27, 2006

A president's legacy


Gerald R. Ford, 1913-2006


I find I've little to say about president Ford's death.

Though I would like to make one point.

In an earlier post I compared him to Bush, which, in retrospect, was not entirely fair to Mr. Ford.

Ford himself was, by all accounts, a likeable guy, totally out of his depth, and totally ineffectual as president.

He was much more comfortable on a golf course than in the oval office.

Substitute the ranch for the links and he was, essentially, George W. Bush.

At least as Bush might have been had 9/11 not happened.

But Ford was, at least, an adult. And, as the CS Monitor points out:

He was his own man, and not Richard Nixon. For the United States, at a crucial point in its history, that was enough.

Bush's legacy will not be so kind.

For a far more extensive examination of Ford's legacy as well as links to a variety of perspectives I recommend Joe Gandelman's outstanding post at The Moderate Voice.

No comments: