December 27, 2006
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President Ford Died
I hate to interrupt the post below but I want to let you know that President Ford has died. (You can go read the lyrics of the song in the post below).
I found out from ProfessorTom via the message feature. Here is the link: Link
President Ford didn’t serve long but is best known for the pardon he gave to former President Nixon. President Nixon was being accused of crimes when he resigned as President. President Ford pardoned him for what he said was the good of the country.
If you were President Ford, would you have pardoned President Nixon?
Comments (94)
Yes, yes, yes
Sad that he has died.
first?
CRUD!!!!!!
i dunno
Aww…I’m sad.
Yeah, I probably would have pardoned him.
Yes, most likely.
I hope you’re having a great day, and that you had a Merry Christmas.
And that song, Held, oh man. I love it. Natalie Grant is quite talented.
Noooooo, he screwed up and he should have paid for it.
The only thing that Nixon did wrong was get caught.
public execution.
Yes it was a good thing. Time to move on, the president had stepped down.
In hindsight, yes I would have pardoned Nixon.
Clinton and his whole administration got away with more than Nixon did. Nixon was only guilty of trying to cover up what his aides did without his knowledge. Clinton on the other hand put the nation through his sex scandal and made the USA a laughing stock of the whole world and to this day when people think of the oval office they think of what Clinton and Monica did there.
Hmmm…if you watch Futurama, Nixon doesn’t need a pardon.
no, i would not have pardoned Nixon.
Hmmmm… Well, it probably saved us millions of dollars, but I hate to see corrupt politicians getting away with something. I don’t think I would have done it.
don’t know but that song makes me cry when I’m having one of those rotten in-the-garbage-can kind of weeks when nothing works out and all of my friends bail out on me
Wow… Two former presidents dying within such a short number of years.
I always kinda liked President Ford. Probably because he was the president I first knew of when I was growing up.
Wow…
Yes, I probably would have pardoned him.
oh how sad! maybe i would have if i was in his shoes..
It was politically expedient to pardon Nixon. But I don’t think he deserved to be pardoned.
Incidentally, what was Nixon pardoned FROM? He wasn’t, to my knowledge, convicted of a crime. Was it a pre-emptive pardon, like the current war in Iraq?
I would have pardoned him, if only to clear up the good name of the White House.
I would have. We were up against the commie hordes back in those days and global power was very much in the balance. The less demonstrated internal dissent on our side the better under the circumstances. Nixon’s essentially forced resignation in and of itself was demonstration enough that our system of government plays according to a system of ethics. There was no need to tar and feather the deposed emperor with more petty accusations, it would have only degraded the office of the presidency and tarnished the republic as a whole in the eyes of the citizenry and world at large.
probably…
Yes. Sending a president to jail for “crimes” commited during the presidency… unless hey were really bad is a terrible precedent to begin. The Romans did it in the late days of the Republic. Its one of the factors that drove Caesar to attack Rome. He feared trumpted up chrages of his “illegal” invasion of Gaul.
Hell no …
I dunno. o.O
Noooo.
That’s how politicians roll. I’d probably do the same if i were him.
i woudl have pardoned him twice
I’m not sure if I woudlve.
but ehh.
I watched a little memorial thing they had about him on my local news channel like an hour ago.
I’m younge, so I knew nothing about him.
It’s sad, because he was intresting.
_mae
I would’ve to stop embarrassment for him.
Nixon made him Vice President, then resigned thereby making Ford President, so the least he could do is pardon the guy
No, I would not have pardoned Nixon.
It was his party’s political wish for him too. He really didn’t have any choice.
Well, only if the crimes weren’t that bad.
-KrIsTiN-
yes
friends do that for eachother. plus, i have the power… so why not? anyone would.
I would not have run for president, for I am too lazy. Plus I pay mild to moderate attention to politics.
Yes =]
it would help if i could remember what pardoned meant
Memory Eternal!
Yes. Nixon was humiliated and forced to step down, it would have done more damage to the office of the President to drag him through a long, drawn out trial.
I will add that if Clinton had stepped down, after lying under oath (and let’s not forget it was purgery, not just a sexual indiscretion) I would have been in favor of his successor pardoning him as well.
> Yes, for the reasons given by different commentators….. We just needed to get the country back toward normal, you know, another brushfire conflict, after ‘Nam…. Let’s get out of the jungle and into the swiss/afghan steppes and middle-eastern sands, after all, war makes for a booming industry….. Uh, yeah, whatever…. If’n it ain’t Noriega, or Sandanista then its Hussein and Bin Laden, and….? Where to next, General, sir?
Peace
Yes, it would be the correct thing to do….and I cannot believe I remember those events…. I am old… ‘Til The Next
No.
Goodbye…………
Yes he did the right thing to let the country move on.
Personally I’m not sure ; I was born after Watergate … and I don’t know much about it. I’ve been reading this book called Censored 2006, and it’s really an eyeopener to the Bush Administration — who knows if Reagan was like that?
&& love
yes. It was a poor political move, but enabled the country to get past Watergate and thus was good for the country.
What most of you young ‘un’s missed (mostly because you weren’t there yet)is what it did for the country. It reunited it. Nixon and watergate caused great turmoil and upset and divided the nation. We were an angry and mistrustful lot. Politics was at it’s ugliest. Ford took quite a bit of heat when he pardoned Nixon, esp so quickly, but it was not for his own political gain, it was to reunite the country. And it did. At that point, we were able to move on.
As Spock would say, the good of the many outweigh the need of the one.
Nixon was pardoned, but left a very broken and bitter man. He never regained respect and the name “Tricky Dick” stayed with him all the days of his life.
No. But it’s his decision.
it did save the presidency but he should have seen trial…
Perhaps he had information that we did not, but I don’t think I would have.
Yes. It allowed the nation to move on from Watergate. I think that was the intended goal.
Yes! This is sad.
I’m not sure…
sure
Well, that’s a tough decision. Nixon did have us pull out of Vietnam which needed to be done, but he took way too long doing it and a lot of young men and innocent civillians died because of that.
I don’t know.
Now that I think of it… no. He showed a lot of dishonesty in that presidency by trying to cover up.
Don’t know. There is so much that probably goes on in our administration that we, as the public, don’t know about. So I figure Mr. Ford knew what he was doing-probably.
I think I would have, but in hindsight I can see where it set a precedent that has given elected officials, especially seen in the Clinton Administration, the courage to go out and commit crimes knowing that they will probably not face severe punishment. Lying to a federal judge under oath is about as serious a whitecollar crime one can commit.
My husband said “I didn’t even know that he was still alive”..
I think that I would have pardoned Nixon.
Probably. Like it was said back then –done for the good of the country and all that.
yeah i probably would have. it spared us from a trial of our former president that could really have screwed up national morale
YES; I’m glad that he did! Unlike Clinton, Nixon has the decency to not put the country through an impeachment trial.
God Speed President Ford.
Probably not.
Given Ford’s reasons for doing so, I’d have done the same.
No.
I imagine that EVERY President has committed a crime somewhere along the way. They just usually don’t get caught. I think it was probably the right decision.
i would hope that i would have been man enough to do it
“YES; I’m glad that he did! Unlike Clinton, Nixon has the decency to not put the country through an impeachment trial.
God Speed President Ford.”
there’s quite a difference of crime being commited here. Clinton did some pretty wrong things- but that was his own personal life, and Americans had no buisness knowing about it. What Nixon did was dishonest and WAS the country’s buisness- as cheating in your favor to win an election ruins the whole democratic system. Although Nixon wasn’t involved in fixing the elections, he did try to cover it up. If he were an honest man, he would have done the right thing and let the country know about it. (Even if Nixon would have won against Mgovern anyway, WITHOUT cheating and covering it up.)
Yeah, probably. He resigned and his reputation was ruined.
I think that is punishment enough for what he did.
Absolutely not!!
Just found this out in the morning.
No, I would not pardon nixon.
No. That was dumb to do. Wonder if he regrets it now. . .
That sucks.
Hell no.
Yes. Because he did and if I were him, I’d do what he did.
nope.
Yeah, I think so
President Ford probably knew more about the situation anyhow
Yes, I would’ve pardoned Nixon.
Actually, Gerald Ford is also well-known for his horrible coordination.
Yes, pardoning Nixon probably helped cost Ford a chance to be elected president in his own right. However, it was the right thing to do. It’s not good for our nation to see a former president sitting in jail, even if he is Bill Clinton.
No. He (Nixon) broke the law. He should not be exempt just because he was the President.
I can’t speak to what I would do if I were president Ford, but I don’t believe that Nixon deserved a pardon. He did some good things during his presidency, but his deceit of the American people superceeded all the good that he did.
L,r
I would hope that I would. What he did was nothing short of courageous! He “took the bull by the horns” and helped this country get through some of its darkest days politically. I give him a lot of credit for being willing to lead so strong and true.
It’s sad.
I would have to actually read more about what happened in order to make a decision as to whether I would pardon Nixon or not. I think I probably would have.
One thing he did was bring our country back together. He was not a stellar speaker, not very charismatic. No incredible legacy…except that. Any maybe that is the best. Healing. And how awesome his wife went into treatment! very wonderful for a nation often in personal denial. He played his cards how he felt they needed to be played. I think he did what he felt was right. Wish that I were a kind of person who could be in his position to even decide if I should pardon Nixon. I am glad he did. Nixon did so many great things, he really wasn’t as against the war as popular press made him out to be. He went personally into the crown of protesters camped out on the mall once in order to talk with their leader. yet….so arrogant, and stupid in this mistake. If only he would have trusted the American people and asked our fogiveness! We could have forgiven. But he didn’t, and the healing was left to Gerald Ford. God bless his soul.
One thing he did was bring our country back together. He was not a stellar speaker, not very charismatic. No incredible legacy…except that. Any maybe that is the best. Healing. And how awesome his wife went into treatment! very wonderful for a nation often in personal denial. He played his cards how he felt they needed to be played. I think he did what he felt was right. Wish that I were a kind of person who could be in his position to even decide if I should pardon Nixon. I am glad he did. Nixon did so many great things, he really wasn’t as against the war as popular press made him out to be. He went personally into the crown of protesters camped out on the mall once in order to talk with their leader. yet….so arrogant, and stupid in this mistake. If only he would have trusted the American people and asked our fogiveness! We could have forgiven. But he didn’t, and the healing was left to Gerald Ford. God bless his soul.
Yes – America needed this incident over fast to start the healing.
There is a good chance. Knowing that it would move us past it as a country so that we could concentrate on the other problems we were having…maybe.
In my mind President Nixon really didn’t do anything wrong, sure he covered up for his staff cheating, and I believe that he could have made a public apology and the people would have forgiven him. He did so many good things but 1000 ata boys won’t cover up one ah shit, so he will be forever remembered as tricky Dick and the only resigned President of the United States. If you want to look at bad things then lets not forget President Regan and the Oliver North contra affair, or the President Clinton lieing to the public about I never had sex with that woman, that kind of stuff was bad but the American public forgave him. Or my last example Senator Ted Kennedy and the murder of Mary Jo and her pregnancy cover up. The American people are outraged at such instances, but the next day all is forgotten cause someone else is in the news, we are so predictable and creature of habits that is why history repeats itself because we never learn. Thats my opinon.
Does the guy who gets caught with an oz of pot…get pardoned? Does the guy who delivered the briefcase of cocaine (for the $1,000..for his newly pregnanted wife) get pardoned? Does the 17 year old who had sex with a 15 year old get pardoned? But, the Money men, the politicians, the people who commit far more heinous (white-collar) crimes…..ahhhh! But; he was such a great guy???? Or are the laws there just to be enforced on the peons?? Nixon was a crook! Several others on his staff were crooks! And don’t mix up the issues……Jerry Ford was a great man and did restore ‘honor and dignity’ to the office of the presidency! And the fact is that Tricky–Dickie Nixon did alot of great things during his presidency……But; he was a crook!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Very cut and clear!! (OK….let’s at least have the trial!…but; jeez…too many government secrets…national security??..in a domestic scenario…for god’s sake it was Americans being spied upon)…years before…the terrists (GW)…by the way..it is terrorists!!? Obviously many of your commenters have situational ethic’s syndrome!!!…Perhaps this is why it is so easy for these people to forfeit their Constitutional Rights and blow GW a big kiss while doing it!!!
He did the right thing- Nixon was beyond shamed and had already lost everything. If he had let an investigation take place and Nixon been charged it would have been nothing but long, drawn-out and costly ordeal for everyone.
…Although it cost him the next election…
Depends.