Pardon Me

First it was James Brown, now the latest to go is former President Gerald Ford, perhaps most famous for pardoning the impeached Watergate President Richard "Tricky Dicky" Nixon. Ford was never on my list of great leaders. He was not elected to office either as Vice-President, having taken over for Spiro Agnew when he was forced out by scandal, or as President. (He replaced Nixon, who resigned for his part in the Watergate mess.) But I guess Ford served his purpose at the time by transitioning the country smoothly from the malaise of Nixon. Then in 1976, he lost the election to Jimmy "Peanutty" Carter, who promptly brought the malaise back to the forefront for four long years.