Why I Voted for Gerald Ford

Although my views tend to slant towards the liberal side, I have never considered myself a Democrat or a Republican. I tend to vote for the person and not the party and have been both pleased and disappointed in the political choices I've made over the years.

In 1976 (my first election) I voted for the non-popular choice for president - Republican Gerald Ford and have been ridiculed for that decision ever since. However, I still stand by my choice.

At the time, I was probably more of a Democrat than anything else. Eight years eariler, my sixth grade class held a mock election between the presidential candidates (Nixon and Humphrey) and I gave an emotional speech on why Hubert Humphrey was the better choice. If I remember right, I believe I said something "original" and compared him to Abraham Lincoln.

When I was finally old enough to vote, the Democrats had another "Lincoln like" candidate in Jimmy Carter. I liked what Carter stood for, but felt that he was to gentle to be a world leader.

No, I liked the guy that everyone else hated - Gerald Ford. I believed then and I believe now that he was disliked not because of anything he did, but because he represented the same party that brought us Nixon and the Watergate scandal. The election had nothing to do with Gerald Ford and everything to do with Richard Nixon. The country wanted the memory of Watergate erased and in the voters eyes - Jimmy Carter was that eraser.

Gerald Ford was given two years in the White House before the public voted him out. Two years does not make a proper presidency, but what Ford did in his two years in office was something many presidents have trouble doing in four. He brought trust back to the highest office there is at a time when the country really needed it.

To me that says a lot and is the reason why I voted for him.