The Enigmatic Wolverine

On the one hand, he was a distinguished naval veteran, earning the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with nine engagement stars for operations in the South Pacific during World War II. He helped solidify our relations with China and entered into the Helsinki Accords with the Soviet Union to advance human rights. He also (in his post presidency) co-chaired the National Commission on Federal Election Reform with Jimmy Carter, created as a result of the 2000 electoral fiasco; basically, I would consider him one of the last of the socially moderate but fiscally conservative Republicans.

But Gerald Ford also refused to bail out New York City during its financial crisis in 1975 after Mayor Abe Beame requested his help in the midst of a recession, led congressional resistance while he served in the U.S. House to the Great Society programs of President Johnson, and in all likelihood, doctored the Warren Commission Report to support the single-bullet theory of Arlen Specter regarding the assassination of President Kennedy. And through his cabinet appointments, he helped launch the political careers of Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld (Poppy Bush, for all intents and purposes, was already on his way).

All told, though, I think Ford was a good man with a few skeletons hanging in his closet (as we all have), and history has judged his pardon of Richard Nixon as the right thing to do on behalf of the country. That will be debated far into the future, as it should be. And I’ll always wonder if a “quid pro quo” was involved when he was appointed vice president as an attempt by Nixon to try and quell impeachment-related unrest in Congress, though Ford flatly denied it, and I think all we or any of us can do is take him at his word (and the line about Poland not considering itself under Soviet domination in the presidential debate with Carter in 1975 was truly the stuff of legend – hey, everyone’s allowed to “drop the ball” at one time or another).

Though he would be allowed to have a state funeral if it turns out that that's what he wanted (U.S. presidents, upon leaving office, can make their own funeral arrangements), I think something more modest would be in keeping with his legacy.

(I just realized that it might be helpful to point out that the Wolverines is the nickname for the Michigan sports teams, and in Ford's case it applied to football, though he also played and coached other sports also, including competitive swimming.)