--- In [email protected], "jim_flanegin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: <snip> > Also, easy for Ford to condemn a war long after he was out of > power.
Not so easy for a former president to condemn a current president's war, at least not while the former president is alive. There's a tradition (albeit not always observed) of former presidents keeping their lips zipped about current policy, and they tend to come in for a great deal of criticism when they do not. It would have been helpful for Ford's voice to have been added to the growing opposition to the war back when he granted the interview to Woodward. It's unfortunate that he didn't have the guts to allow it to be released. > Perhaps to salvage his self-image, after trading the plum of the > presidency for a promise to pardon Nixon (and by example, any future > president who breaks the law...). The power brokers sensed Ford's > hunger for the presidency and used it as leverage for the Nixon > pardon. I doubt that. I think they sensed his loyalty to Nixon, and I don't believe for a second there was any kind of quid pro quo.
