General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Where were you 40 years ago this evening when President Richard M. Nixon resigned? [View all]Major Hogwash
(17,656 posts)I was at home, watching the news on tv.
My dad was really worried that there wouldn't be an orderly transition of power in this country.
He was worried that the Republicans would "just take over" the federal government, by force, if necessary.
It was obvious that the entire Republican party suffered from a cancer that had grown within the GOP for many years.
Ford claimed at first that he was never interested in being the President.
But, once he was sworn in, woo boy, did he ever begin to like all of the power that office had to offer, and so, then he ran for the office, all the while acting like he was an incumbent during that campaign in 1976 . . . yet, Ford had never even been elected to the job to begin with!!!!!!
He probably would have won that election, too, if he had not been such a stumbling idiot who constantly fell down the stairs that came from Air Force 1 when he was deboarding, or when he fell off of some platform that was set up at a political rally the summer of 1976.
Chevy Chase -- singlehandedly, more than any other American -- made fun of Ford's clumsiness on the new comedy sketch program called Saturday Night Live, and as a result, the majority of voters saw Ford as a complete moron, and this country was spared the humiliation of Ford being elected President of the United States.
Ford was -- and hopefully, gawd willing, he always will be -- the only man in America history to serve as both the Vice President and the President, without ever being elected to either of those positions of high office in the first place!!!
Ford was proof that Nixon was a total crook by issuing that pardon, and also at the same time, Ford became a willing participant in the greatest cover-up of a political scandal in American history by issuing Nixon "a full and unconditional pardon".