Click to enlarge. A picture I have always found kind of moving. I believe it was taken at the Clinton Library opening. It captures the essence of both these Presidents. Ford had to be 90 years old when this was taken.
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President Gerald R. Ford was another short-time President, serving the remainder of President Nixon's term when he was run from office in disgrace. He was the first person appointed as vice-president under the terms of the 25th Amendment, and became President upon Richard Nixon's resignation on August 9, 1974.
Gerald Ford is also the first President I ever saw in person. He came to Swedish Hospital/Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, where I was an orderly. The next day in San Francisco, the first assassination attempt on him occurred.
Ford was the fifth POTUS never to have been elected to the position, and the only one who won any national election. He was also the longest-lived president in U.S. history, until he died at the age of 93, less than two years ago.
When Vice President Spiro T. Agnew resigned following a scandal (well, actually, charges of money laundry and tax evasion), Ford was vaulted from Congress into the Vice-presidency, and soon, the Oval Office itself. He was Vice President less than a year in the Watergate-scandal rocked White House. In his short time as President, he was the victim of two assassination attempts. Interestingly, Ford was also a member of the Warren Commission that investigated the JFK assassination. Not only was he a member, but he also leaked information to the FBI of the internal workings of the Commission.
There are many reasons why he lost the '76 election to POTUS 39, James Earl Carter; chief among them was the divisive pardon he granted to the former president for all crimes and misdemeanors committed while he was in office.
My favorite photo of Gerald Ford was taken the night he lost the election to Jimmy Carter. He was in the White House with his good friend Joe Garagiola, who is clearly anguished, while Ford looks almost sanguine.
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See also: "Gerald Ford heads of for the nineteenth hole" on All This Is That.
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