Gerald Ford became President after Richard Nixon resigned as president. Nixon was involved in the watergade scadal and was going to get impeached if he didn't. He served as Vice President for Nixon in 1973 and 1974 and then served as President in 1974 through 1976.
He was the only President to never be elected in office by the electoral college. Spiro Agnew was origionally elected as Nixon's Vice President but he was charged of tax evasion and money laundering, in which he accepted $29,500 as a bribe when he was govenor of Maryland. Ford was then appointed to take Agnew's place by Nixon and accepted by the US senate through a 92-3 vote.
Ford appointed New York govenor Nelson Rockerfeller as his Vice President.
In the 1976 election Ford first had to overcome a tight race for the Rebulican party nominee. He and California govenor and future president Ronald Regan fought it down to the bit where Ford eventually came out on top.
Ford then took on Democratic nominee Jimmy Carter who was a former state senator and govenor of Georgia. When the primaries began Carter was relatively unknown and beat out several other more well known canidates for the Democratic nominee. Candiates Henry Jackson of Washington, George Wallace of Alabama, and Jerry Brown of California were all favored ahead of Carter when it all started. Carter took advantage of his Washington outsider status and capitalized on specific states caucuses to eliminate his opponents one by one.
Ford chose Senator Robert Dole from Kansas as his running mate, and Carter chose Minnesota Senator Walter Mondale.
Carter ran as a reformer who was "untainted" by Washington political scandals, which reminded many voters of the watergate scandel and how they wouldn't want that to happen again. Ford presented himself as a "tested leader" but was thought of part of the Nixon clan and got a lot of negative publicity from the Presidential pardon that he gave Nixon when the watergate scandel was all over with.
Carter took the lead early in the campaign but took a hit in the polls after he addmited in an interview with Playboy magazine that he had a "luster in his heart" for women other than his wife. That cut into his support from women and evangelical Christians. Ford also targeted Carter in that he lacked experience as a leader and that he was vague on many issues.
Carter defeated ford by only 2% in the popular vote and defeated him 297 to 240 in the electoral vote. It was the closest race since 1916. Carter took 23 states with his 297 electoral votes and Ford took 27 states with his 240 electoral votes. Ford secured all of the west except Hawaii and Carter took most of the eastern states. The election turned in favor of Carter basically based on two states. Wisconsic in which he won by 1.68% and Ohio in which he won by .27%. Had Ford won those two states we would of won the election.
The 27 states Ford won is the most ever carried to this date by the losing canidate.
I think Ford would of been a good president if he had won a second term. He seemed to do a good job during the two years that he was in office. Carter did a pretty good job though too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1976
http://www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov/grf/fordbiop.asp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Ford
Comments
Well done Nick!