Detroit News Editorial: "Ford restored our trust and healed the nation"

The Detroit News gets it right in their editorial on the passing of Gerald R. Ford.

Editorial: Ford restored our trust and healed the nation

When the nation needed healing, Gerald R. Ford was the skilled physician who restored its spirit.

President Ford, who died Tuesday at 93, never sought the office, but when it was thrust upon him, he did his job in classic Michigan fashion. He got it done.

For Ford, that job was bringing stability to the nation after more than a decade of tumult that climaxed with the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon. Nixon left office rather than face impeachment and trial on charges of abusing the powers of his office in the Watergate scandal of the mid-1970s. To compound the poisoned atmosphere in the country, Nixon named Ford as vice president after his elected vice president, Spiro Agnew, left office amid charges of bribe-taking and corruption.

Ford, a Grand Rapids area congressman who had spent his career in the House of Representatives, was chosen for his affability and reputation for integrity. But when he was thrust by circumstances into the White House, the man matched the moment. He calmed the nation and restored faith in government.

He was a plain-spoken man of decency who kept the country on an even keel. He rejected the trappings of an imperial presidency and ran a quietly competent administration.

The veneer of affability masked a firm resolve. He could be steely when he had to be -- or wanted to be.

After all, he entered politics after his World War II service as a naval gunnery officer by deposing an incumbent to gain his congressional seat. And when he became dissatisfied with the Republican leadership of the House, he again deposed a congressional veteran to become minority leader.

Within weeks of assuming presidential office, he made one of the most momentous decisions of his career. He gave Nixon an unconditional pardon to spare the country the trauma of a former president facing a criminal trial. The pardon drew a firestorm of criticism -- including the resignation of his newly appointed press secretary, former Detroit News Washington Bureau Chief Jerry ter Horst.

The move may well have cost him the presidency. Many suspected some sort of secret deal between Ford and Nixon when Ford was named vice president. But Ford always denied it, and his denial is credible He simply thought it was the right thing to do. Even in his resignation letter, ter Horst reiterated his admiration for Ford while disagreeing with the pardon.

History now views that pardon as a vital step to pulling the nation out of the bitterness of Watergate.

As president, Ford's resolve manifested itself in his more than 50 vetoes of congressional legislation and spending. Most were not overridden.

And when Communist-controlled Cambodia seized an American merchant ship, the Mayaguez, Ford didn't hesitate to call the move piracy and order its recapture by U.S. Marines. They regained the ship, but with heavy casualties. Twice, he was the target of assassination attempts by disturbed individuals.

Yet he carried on. Ford's administration was also marked by high inflation and a subsequent recession, which also may well have played a role in his narrow defeat for the presidency by then ex-Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter in 1976.

Ford was often caricatured as clumsy and stumbling, and he was not always a glib speaker. But in fact he was one of this nation's most athletic presidents, having been named the University of Michigan football team's most valuable player. He turned down an invitation to join the Detroit Lions to go to law school at Yale. He was a skier and swimmer well past middle age.

When he left the White House, he devoted himself to leisure pursuits and the corporate boardroom, unlike some of his successors, who continue to crave the stage.

What stands out about Gerald Ford is the valuable role he played in restoring confidence and trust in the nation's governing institutions.

He was Michigan's only president, and he made Michigan proud.