Ford Pinto

It's somehow appropriate that the bagpiper playing "Amazing Grace" for Gerald Ford's pallbearers hit so many wretched, discordant notes that he actually had no alternative but to stop and start over during the procession, which I am currently watching on TV.

Some Ford notes:

Mostly, all anyone on TV says is "he was a nice guy".
Great.
Maybe he'd have been an awesome neighbor or bowling buddy, but "nice guy" isn't even on the list of traits I find desirable in a President.

Of primary importance, the President must always place the needs of his country above his own needs. Sound pretty simple right?

The image of a crippled FDR comes to mind- leading America- and indeed, the world, through some of history's darkest days- being the man we needed even though he himself was dying...not merely troubled...the man was fucking dying and he put his country first, protected us.

Think, if you will, what might have happened if Dubya Bush, not JFK, had been President during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Think about that and look at the leaders the two(one) party system are offering us now.
Do any of them have what it takes to be a hero?
Because, no joke, what we fucking need right now is an honest-to-god hero that can be bigger than the job that needs doing and we need to stop worrying if so-and-so would be fun to have a beer with or who they diddled and how they diddled them and instead ask:

Do they have what it takes to be a goddamn hero?

I have yet to see that quality in a politician of my generation.

That sort of Presidental courage is long out of style, it seems.

I think Bobby had it, but he never got the chance.

Bill Clinton, who I generally respect and greatly miss, failed that very simple test of country first- if he'd just said "yeah, I did her, it's none of your damn business", he'd have saved us a lot of stupid national grief
( honestly, I don't care if my Prez fucks around, it's hard to start a bloody war when someone's going down on you-or at least it should be)

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Ford?
The best thing I can say about him is he wasn't Spiro Agnew.

He only got the job because Agnew got busted for tax fraud , bribe-taking and general bad behavior- damn, imagine if Agnew had become Prez- that's a scary thought, but it coulda happened.

First, Ford pardoned Nixon's thugs, just as intended; decades later, he had the chance to use his Presidential Voice to warn against Bush's Warmongering Hegemony and chose -for his own reasons- not to use the powerful platform that history had given him.
A great many so-called leaders knew that this war was wrong from the very beginning and they were afraid to speak up.

There is a word for that and the word is not "hero."

Jesus, I just learned Henry Kissinger spoke at Ford's ceremony.

Man, I don't like Ford, but no one deserves that sort of abuse.

I can't think of anything that would be more debasing, insulting or disgraceful than having Henry the K speak at one's funeral, so I'll ease up on Gerry now.
Feel kinda bad now, actually.

Rest in Peace Mr. President.