I know I've been out of town for a while, but imagine my surprise to return to a world where the late Gerald Ford is being lauded as a great president.
Speaking from his ranch in Crawford, Texas, Mr Bush remembered President Ford as a "gentleman who reflected the best in America's character".
Mr Ford was never elected president but took office after Richard Nixon quit over the Watergate scandal in 1974.
Obviously Bush found some kinship with Ford over one aspect of his presidency.
In a televised address, Mr Bush said Americans "came to know President Ford as a man of complete integrity". Gerald Ford, he said, "came along when we needed him most".
Mr Bush said Mr Ford "stepped into the presidency without ever having sought the office" and helped restore confidence in the White House.
His words were echoed by the Vice-President, Dick Cheney, who was Gerald Ford's Chief-of-Staff.
In a statement, Mr Cheney said that President Ford gave the country the strength, wisdom and good judgement it needed as it faced its greatest constitutional crisis since the civil war.
The culture of hagiography in this country is such that even a "caretaker president" can get lauded like he was the greatest statesman since Benjamin Disraeli. Certainly, he was a competent Congressman and - by all accounts - a decent guy, but come on. He freaking pardoned Nixon and gave people buttons to help combat 7% inflation. To his credit, he survived two assassination attempts and appointed John Paul Stevens to the Supreme Court, even though I'm pretty sure that didn't turn out quite as he'd hoped.
Besides, our national mourning period for James Brown hasn't ended yet.
Oooooh, burn! ;)
Is anyone seriously arguing that he was a "great" president, though? He's getting a lot of posthumous credit for the Nixon pardon (which would have infuriated me then but in hindsight probably did help the country get past Watergate faster than it would have), but I haven't heard anyone call his entire presidency "great."
Either that or it's a pathetic statement about the current president and his junta of neocons... that all a former president has to do is be a good human being in order to look "great" in comparison.
Come on, because of the act of pardoning "Nixon" he has set in motion the "Imperial Executive". Every Pres. since Ford has taken it upon himself to grab more and more in the way of "Executive Orders" and Presidential Authority until we've arrived the the "Nitwit and Chief". My only hope for our nation is that maybe, just maybe this 110th Congress will be able to put the brakes on this clown for the remaining 2yrs of his tenure. Also there is no way I'll ever be convinced that he did'nt make a deal in advance with the Nixon crowd for the Pardon. He was after all a Republican.
Time heals all morons. FF >> to 2006 and now he’s a hero.
Exactly. He's a decent guy, a great athlete from the old days and a guy who wasn't the embarassment his predecessor was. But he was not a great president, he was barely useful. He and Bush have one thing in common: Neither has ever been elected to a position in the executive branch.