Outside views: Praise for Ford

Following are excerpts from some of the editorials published around the nation following former President Gerald R. Ford’s death.

Charlotte (N.C.) Observer: History is likely to judge Gerald Ford more kindly than many in the nation did when he took office. In 2001 – a quarter of a century later – Ford’s decision to pardon Nixon won a John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award.

When he took office under such unusual circumstances, Ford had said: “Our Constitution works. Our great republic is a government of laws and not of men.” That’s true. But it’s also true that our nation has endured because of the integrity and leadership of men such as Gerald Ford.

Detroit Free Press: He would be dogged throughout his brief administration by a public belief that he had cut a deal with Nixon – the presidency for a pardon.

But anyone who knew or had ever worked with Jerry Ford through his 25 years as a congressman from Grand Rapids, Mich., also knew that was simply not his way. Ford, who died Tuesday at age 93, was above all an honest man, astute in politics to be sure, but fundamentally honorable. He truly believed what he repeatedly said in explaining the Nixon pardon – the nation had to get beyond Watergate to address an array of serious pressing issues.

Los Angeles Times: The pardon was a mistake, inconsistent with the fundamental principle that everyone, including the president, is equal before the law. Nixon tried hard to defy that principle and, coming so soon after his resignation, the pardon did the same. Some of those who once criticized Ford’s pardon have softened their views over time, arguing that we needed healing and forgiveness. In 1974, however, after so much Nixonian stonewalling and evasiveness, our system of government would have been better served by letting the legal process take its course, no matter how uncertain.

… Ford himself wrote in his memoirs that he knew the pardon was the right move and that he did not anticipate the virulence of the reaction against it. He may have been too nice a guy.

Miami Herald: A full assessment of the Ford years in the White House would have to include the ignominious withdrawal of the United States from Vietnam in 1975. It was not America’s finest moment, but Ford was powerless to prevent it, given the lack of support for the war at home and the determination of North Vietnam to claim a knockout victory.

There were other shortfalls at home, including an anemic response to soaring inflation – a public-relations campaign titled “WIN,” or Whip Inflation Now, which did nothing of the sort. Eventually, the Federal Reserve had to impose steep interest rates to bring inflation under control, but only after considerable damage had been done to the nation’s economy.

But it was Ford’s personal integrity and his middle-of-the-road approach – his sheer normalcy – that Americans came to value, especially after the divisive and politically charged Nixon years.