Political Quotes

“like his hero, Abraham Lincoln, Gerald Ford helped heal our Nation. His calm leadership and fundamental decency helped hold our Nation together at a time when the forces of war and scandal threatened to tear it apart. When he took the oath of office on August 9, 1974, President Ford declared, ``This is an hour of history that troubles our minds and hurts our hearts.'' During his Presidency, he worked to ease our minds, comfort our hearts, and restore our faith in our government. In his first official remarks as President, Gerald Ford promised America: In all my public and private acts as your president, I expect to follow my instincts of openness and candor with full confidence that honesty is always the best policy at hand. Those were not just words to Gerald Ford, as he proved on October 17, 1974, when he appeared voluntarily before Congress to give sworn testimony--the only time a sitting President has done so about his pardon of Richard Nixon. Gerald Ford believed that pardoning Richard Nixon was the only way to end the long national nightmare of Watergate. He also believed that it might end his political career. And he did pay a high price at the time in lost public approval and public trust. Over time, however, many people came to see the Nixon pardon not as an act of collusion, but of courage and conciliation. In 2001, the Kennedy Library Foundation awarded President Ford its John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award.”