Reply to CumWhipper:

Watergate left the country with great deal of suspicion and disdain for the executive, which - along with a bad economy - hampered both Ford and Carter.

Ford was an ineffective president but an outstanding Congressman highly respected by both parties. I still remember the wild ovation he got when he first addressed Congress.

His pardon of Nixon was a terrible mistake and denied the country the full truth of his crimes. His "Whip Inflaton Now" slogan as a way to improve the ecomony was a laughable farce but the "W.I.N." buttons, of which I had several, me made good money on eBay.

Carter was a TERRIBLE president and not all his problems were due to the check on the Executive. Like Woodrow Wilson, he did not work well with Congress - which was quite odd since both houses were SOLIDLY Democratic.

Part of that was due to Tip O'Neill, a complete asshole, who like Gingrich felt the President should stick his nose up the Speaker's ass.



That said, Carter should have won the Nobel Prize for his mediation of the settlement between Egypt and Israel which lasts even to the day. American Ralph Bunche*, won the prize for his negotiations after Israelis killed the 1st UN negotiator - but this "final settlement" didn't last all that long.

Carter's election had some of the qualities of W's 1st candidacy. Like in 1960 there were serious allegations that Mayor Daley of Chicago had “Katherine Harris-ed” the results. Ford decide not to challenge in part to avoid further chaos -- Something he deserves credit for.



* for trivia fans, he was the first African-American to win a nobel prize.
Nobel Site Reference


[Note: FatMan refers to himself as a Conservative Democrat. He was extremely active in the BUSH I primary campaign in 1980 and in part voted for Reagan because of the "zero" jinx. As an executive board member of the largest white collar workers' union he was nominated by SEIU as delegate from NJ for Clinton in 1992 after he was disillusioned by Bush's "conversion" to Reagan's policies and alliance with the Christian Right. Once it was clear Clinton would be the nominee and the bandwagon filled, he was dumped.]