( 2 3 October 2 0 0 5 , Saturday )



A personal remembrance : this was the date in 1 9 7 6 , twenty - nine

years ago , when I attended a campaign appearance by the incumbent

President , GERALD RUDOLPH FORD JR . The Twenty - Third of

October was a Saturday in 1 9 7 6 , and the President gave a speech

at DORTON ARENA , on the North Carolina State Fairgrounds .

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I am grateful I made it to Dorton Arena for President Ford ' s

speech , butt I deserve no credit for going - - I ' d been travelling

with college classmates Goodrich and Drummond , and We Three

went to the FairGrounds only because they were observant , having

seen the item in the local paper , the NEWS AND OBSERVER .







President Ford , in time , contracted laryngitis from the rigors of

the ' 7 6 Campaign . Doubtless he had to make many more speeches

than he ' d ever been called upon to deliver in a quarter - century of

re - election campaigns for Congress . His Wife BETTY had to give

the concession speech following Ford ' s defeat on 2 November of

that year , in retrospect one of the closest and most exciting

Presidential races of my lifetime . ( President Ford , the only

Commander - In - Chief ever to assume the office without being

elected to the Vice - Presidency or the Presidency first , received

2 4 1 Electoral Votes , twenty - nine shy of winning . )



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Gerald Ford is one of a series of American luminaries either born

or raised in OMAHA , Nebraska ; MARLON BRANDO , WALLY COX ,

NICK NOLTE , DICK CAVETT , WARREN BUFFETT , SWOOSIE

KURTZ , HENRY FONDA , MALCOLM X , and BOB GIBSON

also are native , by birth , upbringing or residency , to Nebraska ' s

largest city . Ford , originally christened Leslie King , was re - named

after his Mother divorced and re - married .







Ford played football at the University of Michigan , and declined an

offer to play professional football for the Green Bay Packers - -

he opted for law school at Yale University instead , taking on coaching

duties for the Yale varsity football and boxing teams so as to afford the

cost of post - grad schooling . First elected from the Grand Rapids

( Michigan ) Congressional District in 1 9 4 8 , Ford eventually

became House Minority Leader , and was a member of the much -

vilified WARREN COMMISSION , whose investigators concluded

that LEE HARVEY OSWALD was President JOHN FITZGERALD

KENNEDY ' s lone assassin .







( Gerald Ford , Jack Kennedy , LYNDON BAINES JOHNSON ,

RICHARD MILHOUS NIXON and JAMES EARL " JIMMY "

CARTER JR . , every one a United States Navy veteran , all won

or assumed the Presidency between 1 9 6 0 and 1 9 7 7 . )







Ford was the first of his kind , that is , the very first Vice - President

chosen by the incumbent President ( in this case , Richard Nixon )

and confirmed by a vote of the Congress - - no such procedure

had been implemented until 1 9 6 7 , with the ratification of the

Twenty - Fifth Constitutional Amendment . The Vice - Presidency

had been vacated on 1 0 October of 1 9 7 3 , with the resignation

of SPIRO T . AGNEW , compelled to leave under a very dark cloud

following revelations of gratuities paid Agnew when he was

Governor of Maryland .







Nixon ' s Presidency ended just ten months later , 9 August 1 9 7 4

( a Friday ) , leaving Ford in the unenviable position of succeeding

the much - loathed Nixon as President . This Typist believes President

Ford receives too little appreciation for his performance , under

exceedingly - difficult circumstances . ( Nixon is still the only

American President ever to resign , about which this Typist will

have plenty to say in another Blog . )

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Gerald Ford , the first Vice - President chosen under the terms of

the Twenty - Fifth Amendment , in turn selected the second ,

NELSON ALDRICH ROCKEFELLER , formerly the four - term

Governor of New York . I myself was living and attending school

in New York ( Seneca Falls ) at the time Rockefeller resigned the

GovernorShip , in 1 9 7 3 . Imagine : in less than a year , four

of the most prominent Republican office - holders ( Agnew ,

Ford , Rockefeller , Nixon ) would all resign their day jobs ,

either to assume more prestigious jobs or more ignominious exile .







President Ford was challenged for the 1 9 7 6 Republican Nomination

by the former Governor of California , RONALD WILSON REAGAN ;

the latter ' s campaign was helped considerably by " cross - over "

voting in North Carolina , Indiana , and especially Texas , wherein

registered Democrats participated in the Republican Primaries so as

to boost Governor Reagan . At the Republican Convention in Kansas

City , Reagan attempted to impose upon President Ford with an EX

POST FACTO rule that would require each Candidate to select a

Vice - Presidential nominee before the delegates voted on the

Presidential nomination . ( Reagan himself chose the junior

Senator from Pennsylvania , RICHARD SCHWEIKERT . )

This gambit , definitely NOT one of

Reagan ' s finer or more gracious moments , was contrived by

Reagan ' s alcoholic campaign manager , one JOHN SEARS .

( Sears also worked for a time on Reagan ' s 1 9 8 0 Campaign

before getting the boot . )







While the Ford delegates outvoted Reagan ' s supporters over the

gerrymandered change in the rules , it was nevertheless apparent that

the convention would be unwilling to support Nelson Rockefeller as

the Vice - Presidential nominee . " Rocky " showed little interest in

retaining the job anyway , so President Ford selected the United States

Senator from Kansas , ROBERT J . DOLE , as Rockefeller ' s successor .

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Candidates Ford and Dole would be participants - - for the first time in

sixteen years - - in televised debates , opposite Democratic nominees

JIMMY CARTER and WALTER " FRITZ " MONDALE . Thus began

a trend that this Typist regrets ; I personally regard the Presidential and

Vice - Presidential debates as a waste of time . Little more than glorified

joint press conferences , the contemporary debates do not merit any

serious comparison at all with the confrontations between Senatorial

candidates STEPHEN A . DOUGLAS and ABRAHAM LINCOLN ,

seven score and seven years ago . ( That ' s 1 8 5 8 , friends ! )







Nor is the absurd spectacle of Presidential " debates " the only regret have

I about the ' 7 6 Campaign : at last old enough to vote in a Presidential

Election , having turned eighteen two years earlier , I filled out my

North Carolina absentee ballot , mailed same - - and found it in my

mail on 1 November 1 9 7 6 ( Monday ) , the day prior to the Election .

Under North Carolina ' s archaic electioneering rules of three decades

ago , I had first to have the ballot notarized prior to mailing . Very

disappointed , I cast it aside and lamented how long I would have

to wait before I ' d have another crack at voting for President . . . .

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Ford ' s loss to Jimmy Carter ended his public career , although he was

sought out as a candidate for the Presidency in 1 9 8 0 . Remarkably ,

former President Ford is still extant as of this typing ; born on

bastille Day , 1 4 July of 1 9 1 3 , Ford is now ninety - two years old

and is the second longest - lived President , exceeded only by Ronald

Reagan . ( President Reagan died 5 June 2 0 0 4 , a Saturday , at the

age of ninety - three . Besides Reagan and Ford , JOHN ADAMS and

HERBERT CLARK HOOVER were also nonagenarian ex - Presidents . )







Gerald Ford and Nelson Rockefeller remain the only Vice - Presidents

chosen under the terms of Amendment Twenty - Five , in retrospect a

wise Constitutional modification . No longer has the Republic an

accidental President who hasn ' t any successor - designate ; previous

Presidents who hadn ' t a Vice - President :



JOHN TYLER ( 1 8 4 1 ) , successor to WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON

MILLARD FILLMORE ( 1 8 5 0 ) , successor to ZACHARY TAYLOR

ANDREW JOHNSON ( 1 8 6 5 ) , successor to ABRAHAM LINCOLN

CHESTER ALAN ARTHUR ( 1 8 8 1 ) , successor to JAMES A . GARFIELD

THEODORE ROOSEVELT ( 1 9 0 1 ) , successor to WILLIAM McKINLEY

JOHN CALVIN COOLIDGE ( 1 9 2 3 ) , successor to WARREN HARDING

HARRY S TRUMAN ( 1 9 4 5 ) , successor to FRANKLIN D . ROOSEVELT

LYNDON BAINES JOHNSON ( 1 9 6 3 ) , successor to JOHN F . KENNEDY







Additionally , Presidents THOMAS JEFFERSON , ANDREW JACKSON ,

FRANKLIN PIERCE , ABRAHAM LINCOLN , WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT ,

RICHARD NIXON , and GERALD FORD himself , served for short intervals

sans Vice - President , owing to the resignation of the incumbent

Vice - President , the untimely death of the Vice - President , or the

temporary vacancy of the Vice - Presidency awaiting an appointed

successor . The Vice - Presidency is a post of some consequence ,

as fourteen Presidents held the number two job previously . . . .







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