Crossposted from Town Called Dobson
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"How the Hell did I get here?" is something I imagine Gerald Ford, the Nation's 38th President said often due to his peculiar path he took - or was forced down, to the Oval Office.
Edward Walsh of the Washington Post says it best:
Gerald R. Ford was the most accidental of American presidents, but when he unexpectedly appeared at the crossroads of history, he seemed to have been placed there by a deliberate act of providence.
No joke. After Nixon, America needed a well deserved break and Ford was our fresh air.
In one important respect, Ford was different from most of his predecessors and all of his successors: He did not seek the presidency. He was a product of a small Midwest city and the House of Representatives. His political ambition--seemingly hopeless in a time of Democratic domination of Congress--was to become the first Republican speaker in a generation.
Ford became the 38th president because of the shortcomings of others and because he had earned the trust of both Democrats and Republicans in Congress. When the corrupt Spiro T. Agnew was forced to resign as vice president, it was Ford's congressional colleagues who virtually forced President Richard M. Nixon to accept him as Agnew's successor.
But for all the grief Ford received from the public, from Chevy Chase and from Congress, he left America one gift that would last much longer than his Presidency - the nomination of Supreme Court Justice Paul Stevens. He also oversaw the evacuation of US troops from the debacle of Vietnam and he allowed Americans who avoided the draft and fled to Canada to return to the United States. Those actions went a long way to make up for pardoning Nixon.
Frankly, everybody was glad it was over.
Now, my question is, who will pardon Bush?