Reply #38: Because even though he was no longer president...

[T Town Jake]

...Nixon was still subject to criminal sanctions for the events surrounding the Watergate cover-up, including things that had nothing directly to do with the actual break-in itself. The thinking, as I understand it, behind Ford's decision to pardon Nixon was that he thought it would just continue to prolong America's long "national nightmare," and would make us look ridiculous to the world with a former president in the dock in a federal courtroom. I suspect he also hoped it would help his bid for election in '76 by taking the whole issue off the table and letting it fade from people's memories. If that was the case he badly misjudged and it backfired on him - that pardon probably single handedly cost Ford the 1976 election. It left a sour taste in too many voters mouths.