J. F. terHorst’s Gerald Ford and the Future of the Presidency limns a relationship—with Nixon

IKE’S LEGATEE

In a televised interview broadcast on the evening of August 7, 1974 Bud Vestal, veteran Grand Rapids reporter and author of a punky book Jerry Ford Up Close, suggested that if President Jerry Ford “just sat in the White House and let Kissinger coddle the Arabs and Israelis, delegated economic policy to competent and honest men, told the truth to the people, and raised taxes on economic fat cats, he could become a folk hero.” Ah, the gentlemen of the fourth estate: it is hard to say whether they are more naive when they are trying to be dastardly or when they are striving toward benevolence. Nothing is more certain as of this writing than that Jerry Ford is at present nobody’s hero, and that he is highly unlikely to be a folk hero within my lifetime—although he has followed Vestal’s prescription to the dot, save for butchering tomcats. Mr. terHorst is somewhat more guarded in his prognostications, which he couches in the prudent conditional: “Nominated as Vice President in 1973 by a Republican President but ratified only after massive support from Democrats in the House and Senate, Ford is the closest thing to a bipartisan Chief Executive this country has ever seen. . . . Ford could do . . . much to rebuild the center of American political ideology, thereby aiding both parties. There are millions of American voters who do not know whether they are more Democratic than Republican or vice versa.”

CW

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Chilton Williamson Jr.

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IKE’S LEGATEE

In a televised interview broadcast on the evening of August 7, 1974 Bud Vestal, veteran Grand Rapids reporter and author of a punky book Jerry Ford Up Close, suggested that if President Jerry Ford “just sat in the White House and let Kissinger coddle the Arabs and Israelis, delegated economic policy to competent and honest men, told the truth to the people, and raised taxes on economic fat cats, he could become a folk hero.” Ah, the gentlemen of the fourth estate: it is hard to say whether they are more naive when they are trying to be dastardly or when they are striving toward benevolence. Nothing is more certain as of this writing than that Jerry Ford is at present nobody’s hero, and that he is highly unlikely to be a folk hero within my lifetime—although he has followed Vestal’s prescription to the dot, save for butchering tomcats. Mr. terHorst is somewhat more guarded in his prognostications, which he couches in the prudent conditional: “Nominated as Vice President in 1973 by a Republican President but ratified only after massive support from Democrats in the House and Senate, Ford is the closest thing to a bipartisan Chief Executive this country has ever seen. . . . Ford could do . . . much to rebuild the center of American political ideology, thereby aiding both parties. There are millions of American voters who do not know whether they are more Democratic than Republican or vice versa.”