The late Gerald Ford hammers the Gipper

I know a lot of Reagan Republicans who frequent this blog and wonder if they are surprised at Ford's rating of "the Great Communicator" and other presidents. I am a fan of President Reagan specifically because under his direction, American envoys (notably former chairman of the JCS General John Vessey, Jr.) secured the release of long-term detainees in the Vietnamese communist reeducation camps in 1987 including my father.

Gerald Ford said Ronald Reagan was "probably the least well-informed on the details of running the government of any president I knew."

"It makes me very irritated when Reagan's people pound their chests and say that because we had this big military buildup, the Kremlin collapsed," Ford told The Grand Rapids Press.

Comments

[MI GOP]

Great post and link. As a fellow resident of MI's 3rd district, Grand Rapidians including myself have felt that the fmr president had become very moderate after he left the White House. Ironically the Congressman who occupies Ford's Congressional seat is becoming more liberal each year and will face opposition next year in the Republican primary for the first time since occupying the seat.

[Be serious]

Ford is basically right. As much as we love the America that The Gipper projected, management was clearly the weak point of his presidency, saved in the end by Howard Baker in his second term. The Soviet collapse is a complex phenomenon of economics, globalization and nationalism, hastened as much by Afghanistan as Ron's epic moment at the Brandenburg gates. Saying he was a crappy manager, however, does nothing to take away from his mastery of the other skills required of the modern presidency.

[Jim Lacy]

Ford didn't do too much to cause the Kremlin collapse. In fact, it was Ford who declared that Poland was a free country during his debate with Carter in 1976. That couldn't have been a welcome observation to the millions of captive Poles behind the iron curtain, who staged a their own famous revolution 13 years later that lead the way to the fall of communism in all of Europe.

[ElroyEl]

What I don't understand is why these remarks were only allowed upon Ford's death.

Not much in the way of conviction to me.

I didn't agree with a lot of Reagan's politics, but he was the better of the candidates given his opposition.

I do agree with Ford's assessment of Truman and Eisenhower, but disagree with his assessment of Clinton.

you gotta luv it when a never-elected president takes shots at a twice-elected President; landslide elections even.