For an alternate viewpoint, see “Counterpoint: Gerald Ford, a Fill-In or Filled with Consequence?”
Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew had never gotten along well. It likely didn’t pain the president much to acquiesce in the ousting of his vice president over illegal kickbacks while the president while struggled to keep his own job. It was 1973, and Nixon still gave every indication that he wanted to beat the Watergate rap. But that left the problem of who would fill the vacancy.
The vice presidency had frequently sat vacant. The 25th Amendment, ratified in 1967, changed that and prevented a unified Democratic government for a few years. Given the radicalism of the 94th Congress, which brought a Democratic wave of new faces into both chambers to push for regulatory expansions on several fronts, that was probably a good thing!
Nixon didn’t precisely cherry-pick then-House Minority Leader Gerald Ford. As Democratic House Speaker Carl Albert bluntly told the New York Times, “We gave Nixon no choice but Ford.” He was a known quantity and had been around forever, having first entered Congress in 1949 from Grand Rapids, Michigan.
In only one of those Congresses, during the first half of President Dwight Eisenhower’s first term, did Republicans enjoy a small House majority. Ford later confessed to being frustrated about congressional Republicans’ inability to gain traction under his leadership.
Ford was our only “placeholder president,” appointed rather than elected to a national office. He inherited a massive political scandal, the worst economy since the Great Depression, a Federal Reserve that had lost all credibility on inflation, and the aftermath of an acrimonious end to the Vietnam War.
In other words, Ford was dealt what looked to be an extremely weak hand. How did he play those cards during his short presidency? Ford did some important things that made a huge difference in the country and got him within striking distance of staying in the White House on election night in 1976.
When Ford addressed the country after taking the presidential oath of office on August 9, 1974, he uttered the famous words, “My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over.”
The words that followed gave some clue as to the hard choice he was contemplating.
“Our Constitution works. Our great Republic is a government of laws and not of men. Here, the people rule. But there is a higher Power, by whatever name we honor Him, who ordains not only righteousness but love, not only justice but mercy,” Ford said.
Just shy of a month later, on September 8, Ford told the nation from the Oval Office that he would “grant a full, free and absolute pardon unto Richard Nixon for all offenses against the United States which he, Richard Nixon, has committed or may have committed.”
Ford maintained that this act of mercy, to his predecessor and to the disgusted American public, was not without a price for Nixon. By accepting the pardon, Nixon legally admitted his role in those offenses. He had denied them before.
Many Democrats had pushed Ford for vice president, frankly because they thought he would be a pushover. After the Democratic wave election of 1974, he found a way to push back with his pen. In only two years, he racked up an impressive 66 vetoes and pocket vetoes of bills. Further, Ford cobbled together a large enough coalition in a hostile Congress to sustain all but 12 of those vetoes.
Of course, Ford made some mistakes. He picked progressive Republican Nelson Rockefeller as his statutory vice-presidential replacement. He made a silly speech about how cutting down on food waste could affect inflation. He also promoted silly Whip Inflation Now! (W.I.N.) buttons rather than challenging the Federal Reserve to do its duty.
Still, many Americans of both parties appreciated the job Ford did enough that he only narrowly lost to former Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter. A few thousand votes in select states would have put him over the top. He also narrowly beat a Republican primary challenge by former California Gov. Ronald Reagan. One of the great counterfactuals of American history is how the 1976 election would have turned out if Ford had picked Reagan as his running mate.
