Jerry Ford - Rest in Peace

ESPN just reported that Gerald Ford the 38th president of the United States passed away tonight. A long life lived well. A decent man who served his country honorably should be more remembered for the good he did than the pratfalls publicized by comedians. He could have taken action to facilitate his reelection but instead did what he thought was right. Not a great president, but definitely a great man even if he was a Michigan football player. My prayers go out to his family.


UPDATE:
Since I posted the news of President Ford's passing I've come across several bloggers with better posts.
BizzyBlog's memorial post has links to several historical items regarding the 38th president.
A Large Regular has a different take than most people on the 1976 election.

You will also see many mentions of people wishing they had their vote back in 1976 to do-over. However, I think the nation actually needed to see the perfidy of Jimmy Carter and a Democratic controlled Senate and White House to make the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980 possible. If Ford had won in 1976 then it is very likely that we would have seen four years of vetoes and over-rides and finger pointing. Ford would have been unable to run in 1980 and it is entirely possible that the Republican President would have been blamed for "stagflation" allowing someone like Ted Kennedy to win election in 1980 instead of Reagan.

Don Surber thinks the current president could learn a lesson from the 38th.
Ed at Captain's Quarters has a round up of arguments about whether Ford should have pardoned Nixon.
CNBC discussed Ford's economic impact and noted how many spending bills Ford vetoed. They cited a Ford quote bragging about how many billions were contained in the legislation he vetoed. The current president would do well to follow that example.

I'll add more if I see any particularly noteworthy.