History UsefulNotes / GeraldFord

** It gets better. While he ’’grew up’’ in Michigan, he was ’’born’’ in Nebraska...and that makes him the only president to have been born in Nebraska, meaning that in a way, two states can claim Ford as their only president.

** It gets better. While he ‘’grew up’’ in Michigan, he was ‘’born’’ in Nebraska...and that makes him the only president to have been born in Nebraska, meaning that in a way, two states can claim Ford as their only president.

* Had a pet golden retriever, Liberty. Very much loved the dog, and there are many photographs of the two together in the Oval Office.

* On that note, he is also the only president from Michigan. Michiganders are simultaneously proud of this (because he was a decent guy and not a ''bad'' president) and embarrassed by this (because he's ''Gerald Ford''). (Michigan then comforts itself by telling itself that even though UsefulNotes/{{Ohio}} has six presidents, all of them were kind of crap presidents.[[note]]Don't remind Michigan that Illinois has both UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln and UsefulNotes/BarackObama; that will cause it to eat too much Mackinac Island fudge and drink too much craft beer.[[/note]])

Unique in that he was the only president who assumed the office without being elected either president or vice-president. A long-time Republican congressman who dreamed of becoming Speaker of the House, he was appointed to the vice-presidency after UsefulNotes/RichardNixon's original vice-president, Spiro T. Agnew, resigned amidst a slew of criminal investigations of corruption, tax evasion, and general [[{{Jerkass}} jerkishness]]. Then Nixon resigned eight months later, making Ford the president.

Longest-lived person to serve as president, he got an aircraft carrier (yet to be completed) named after him while he was still alive. Notably [[http://www.filibustercartoons.com/Ford.html difficult to caricature]] [[TheNondescript due to a complete lack of distinguishing features]]. Satirical portrayals usually focused on his [[TheKlutz clumsiness]], mainly due to [[NeverLiveItDown that one time he fell down the stairs deplaning Air Force One, in front of TV cameras]] (which is ironic because he was a star athlete on the football team of his alma-mater, UsefulNotes/UniversityOfMichigan) and genial demeanor. Fittingly, he's usually depicted as a bit of a clumsy but amiable doofus.

* In Creator/StephenKing's ''Literature/TheDeadZone'', after Johnny Smith wakes up from his five-year coma, he expresses horror when he hears that Ford is President, thinking that it was ''Henry'' Ford at first. Johnny, who becomes a clairvoyant after his coma, later meets Jimmy Carter when he's campaigning for the presidency in 1976, and predicts to Csrter that he's going to win because Ford will "beat himself. Poland. Poland will beat him".

* In Creator/StephenKing's ''Literature/TheDeadZone'', after Johnny Smith wakes up from his five-year coma, he expresses horror when he hears that Ford is President, thinking that it was ''Henry'' Ford at first.

* Falling down a lot, due to an inner ear problem. This was lampooned by ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' actor ChevyChase. He didn't actually fall down as often as ''SNL'' viewers would be led to believe -- although Chase's parody of this became so iconic that this trait was mentioned in the ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'' "Presidents" song 20 years later. It should be noted Ford was a former football star at the University of Michigan (he played center) and generally extremely fit; while he did indeed fall down the steps of Air Force One (he later said this was because the stairs were slick due to rain) he picked himself up at the bottom of the stairs and was shaking hands with dignitaries before anybody could even ask if he was okay.

* On that note, he is also the only president from Michigan. Michiganders are simultaneously proud of this (because he was a decent guy and not a ''bad'' president) and embarrassed by this (because he's ''Gerald Ford'').

* Being something of an enthusiastic sports fan. He was an alumnus of the University of Michigan and reportedly nagged the presidential band that he wanted them to play the U of M fight-song in lieu of Hail to the Chief as his presidential fanfare. For this reason, most Michiganders[[note]]Even those who usually back the sports teams of U of M's instate (read: friendly) rival MSU[[/note]] have quite fond memories of him.

Ford didn't do a whole lot in office beyond negotiating ''[[UsefulNotes/HistoryOfTheColdWar Russo-American Détente]]'' with UsefulNotes/LeonidBrezhnev. Domestically the extraordinary circumstances of how he assumed the office were the distinguishing feature of his presidency. Between the major neutering of the President's powers that came in response to Watergate (which would not be restored to what they once were until UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush's presidency), Congress falling into the hands of opposition politicians (again in response to Watergate) and the circumstances by which he became president causing him to not be taken seriously by Congress or the media -both whom saw him as nothing more than a temporary caretaker - so he was effectively powerless. He is, to date, the only President to hold office since UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt that never made ''Time'' magazine's "Person of the Year". Additionally, a 2005 Creator/DiscoveryChannel poll of the 100 greatest Americans included all of the presidents since FDR ''except'' Ford. He's most famous for:

* Falling down a lot, due to an inner ear problem. This was lampooned by ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' actor ChevyChase. He didn't actually fall down as often as ''SNL'' viewers would be led to believe -- although Chase's parody of this became so iconic that this trait was mentioned in the ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_AL1Xn6UYM "Presidents" song]] 20 years later. It should be noted Ford was a former football star at the University of Michigan (he played center) and generally extremely fit; while he did indeed fall down the steps of Air Force One (he later said this was because the stairs were slick due to rain) he picked himself up at the bottom of the stairs and was shaking hands with dignitaries before anybody could even ask if he was okay.

* His debate gaffe in 1976 when he said that Poland was not under Soviet domination. [[WarsawPact Oops]].

Ford didn't do a whole lot in office beyond negotiating ''[[UsefulNotes/HistoryOfTheColdWar Russo-American Détente]]'' with UsefulNotes/LeonidBrezhnev. Domestically the extraordinary circumstances of how he assumed the office were the distinguishing feature of his presidency. Between the major neutering of the President's powers that came in response to Watergate (which would not be restored to what they once were until UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush's presidency), Congress falling into the hands of opposition politicians (again in response to Watergate) and the circumstances by which he became president causing him to not be taken seriously by Congress or the media -both whom saw him as nothing more than a temporary caretaker - so he was effectively powerless. He is, to date, the only President to hold office since UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt that never made ''Time'' magazine's "Person of the Year". Additionally, a 2005 Creator/DiscoveryChannel poll of the 100 greatest Americans included all of the presidents since FDR ''except'' Ford. He's most famous for:

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* Remarking upon UsefulNotes/RichardNixon's resignation that "the long national nightmare is over", then granting Tricky Dick a pardon for anything he may have done--probably his most unpopular action.

* ''That70sShow''. Ford visits Point Place, and Red gets his CrowningMomentOfAwesome at a Town Hall Q&A:

[[quoteright:325:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gerald-ford-picture.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:325:Any similarity to [[Film/{{Goldfinger}} Auric Goldfinger]] is purely coincidental.]]

Ford didn't do a whole lot in office beyond negotiating ''[[UsefulNotes/HistoryOfTheColdWar Russo-American Détente]]'' with UsefulNotes/LeonidBrezhnev. Domestically the extraordinary circumstances of how he assumed the office were the distinguishing feature of his presidency. Between the major neutering of the President's powers that came in response to Watergate (which would not be restored to what they once were until UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush's presidency), Congress falling into the hands of opposition politicians (again in response to Watergate) and the circumstances by which he became president causing him to not be taken seriously by Congress or the media -both whom saw him as nothing more than a temporary caretaker - so he was effectively powerless. He is, to date, the only President to hold office since UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt that never made ''Time'' magazine's "Person of the Year". Additionally, a 2005 DiscoveryChannel poll of the 100 greatest Americans included all of the presidents since FDR ''except'' Ford. He's most famous for:

Ford didn't do a whole lot in office beyond negotiating ''[[UsefulNotes/HistoryOfTheColdWar Russo-American Détente]]'' with UsefulNotes/LeonidBrezhnev. Domestically the extraordinary circumstances of how he assumed the office were the distinguishing feature of his presidency. Between the major neutering of the President's powers that came in response to Watergate (Which would not be restored to what they once were until UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush's presidency), Congress falling into the hands of opposition politicians (again in response to Watergate) and the circumstances by which he became president causing him to not be taken seriously by Congress or the media -both whom saw him as nothing more than a temporary caretaker - so he was effectively powerless. He is, to date, the only President to hold office since UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt that never made ''Time'' magazine's "Person of the Year". Additionally, a 2005 DiscoveryChannel poll of the 100 greatest Americans included all of the presidents since FDR ''except'' Ford. He's most famous for:

* SpaceQuest 3 features a reference accompanying one of the ways Roger Wilco [[HaveANiceDeath can be sent to an early grave]].

* One notably hilarious ''SaturdayNightLive'' [[http://snltranscripts.jt.org/96/96dbrokaw.phtml sketch]] featured Dana Carvey as Tom Brokaw pre-recording news briefs for every possible death of Gerald Ford including suicide, overdosing on crack cocaine, walking into a propeller, and being eaten by wolves. Carvey apologized to the former president at the end of the episode and the sketch is featured in his "Best Of..." compilation.

* Opposing ''Roe v. Wade'', though he became 'pro-choice'[[note]]In US politics, the debate over abortion is defined in terms of 'pro-life' and 'pro-choice'. The former means one is in favour of making abortion illegal, and the latter means one is in favour of keeping it legal. It is also a [[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment very, ''vary'' controversial subject]][[/note]] later in life.

* Opposing ''Roe v. Wade'', though he became 'pro-choice'[[note]]In US politics, the debate over abortion is defined in terms of 'pro-life' and 'pro-choice'. The former means one is in favour of making abortion illegal, and the latter means one is in favour of keeping it legal.[[/note]] later in life.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "Two Bad Neighbors", after UsefulNotes/GeorgeHWBush moved away, Gerald Ford moved into the house Mr. Bush just left.
** And became a good friend of Homer as they're both simple, amicable salt of the earth types who shared common ground (read: they both tripped on the same piece of sidewalk at the same time and fell flat on their faces shouting "D'oh!").
*** Their photo together is still in the family closet.

* The final episode of ''The Late Show with Creator/DavidLetterman'' opened with the clip of Ford saying [[SelfDeprecation "Our long national nightmare is over"]], which then was echoed by fellow presidents UsefulNotes/GeorgeHWBush, UsefulNotes/BillClinton, UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush, and UsefulNotes/BarackObama.

!Gerald Ford provides examples of:
* AbusiveParents: His biological father once threatened to kill him and his mom with a butcher knife. Luckily, this was the catalyst for Ford's mom getting the hell out of [[JustForPun Dodge.]]
* ActuallyPrettyFunny: Ford had a very good sense of humor and never missed an opportunity to poke fun at himself, a nice contrast to the uptight and paranoid Nixon.
--> "I'm a Ford, not a Lincoln."
* AlmaMaterSong: During his presidency, Ford would often request that the University of Michigan fight song be played instead of "Hail to the Chief" during state events. Fittingly, the fight song was also played during his funeral procession.
* CanineCompanion: His golden retriever Liberty.
* ChekhovsGunman: Ford was a no-name who managed to unseat a tenured representative in a surprise upset, and as House minority leader he received some time in the national spotlight from his opposition to the Great Society and his criticism of Vietnam War, and the insults that UsefulNotes/LyndonJohnson hurled at him in response. Then Watergate happened.
* ChessMaster: Despite his "nice guy" personality and image, Ford was rather politically savvy and had a machiavellian side to him. A couple of examples:
** As vice president, Ford regularly defended Nixon and proclaimed his innocence of Watergate. However, after Ford's death evidence has surfaced that by early 1974 he knew that Nixon had absolutely no chance of surviving Watergate and that he was essentially just waiting in line to become the next president. He had to toe a very fine line during that period so that he wouldn't destroy his public image: If he was too defensive of Nixon, he would be seen as just a Nixon crony and possibly get sucked into the Watergate controversy; However, if he did anything to undermine Nixon and hasten his demise, he would have been accused of throwing Nixon under the bus in a power play for the presidency, which would have made him a divisive political figure and would thus make his main presidential goal of reuniting the country after Watergate impossible. Ford walked that line perfectly and navigated the Watergate scandal with his honest public image unscathed.
** In 1980, Ford received an offer from Ronald Reagan to be his running mate. Ford had hated Reagan ever since he challenged Ford for the Republican nomination in 1976, which he saw an underhanded move and an insult, and thus wanted to be no part of a Reagan presidency. However, if he flat-out rejected Reagan's offer, he would have been slammed as just being bitter over Reagan's 1976 presidential bid. So he instead gave Reagan a counter offer: he and Reagan would serve an unprecedented co-Presidency, where both he and Reagan would hold equal authority over key administrative decisions, knowing Reagan would want nothing to do with it and was sure to reject it. Reagan did just that, and instead named UsefulNotes/GeorgeHWBush as his running mate.
* UsefulNotes/CollegiateAmericanFootball: Ford was a star player for the University of Michigan Wolverines football team and received offers from the Detroit Lions and the Green Bay Packers upon his graduation. However, he was more interested in furthering his education and going into law than becoming a NFL player.
* ConspiracyTheory: A common one, especially during his presidency, is that his pardon of Nixon was actually a quid pro quo agreement between the two: If Nixon stepped down and handed Ford the presidency, Ford would pardon him to protect him from any kind of prosecution or litigation over Watergate.
** Some also latch on to Ford being part of the Warren Commission that investigated the [[UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy Kennedy assassination]] and suggested that Ford was somehow rewarded with the Presidency for allegedly helping cover up for the "real" assassin(s).
* CrowningMomentOfAwesome: Ford presiding over the United States Bicentennial in 1975-1976.
* DefeatMeansFriendship: Ford would become very close friends with UsefulNotes/JimmyCarter, the Democrat who unseated him in the 1976 election.
** Averted with Ronald Reagan; Ford would hold a strong grudge, and some would say rivalry, towards Reagan well after Ford fought him off to become the Republican party's 1976 presidential nominee.
** During the United States Bicentennial in 1976, Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Phillip of Great Britain visited the US and celebrated the event with Ford and his family. On July 6, 1976, the would present the "Freedom Bell", a Liberty Bell replica, as a gift from the British people to the American people to mark the occasion.
* DirtyBusiness: His presidency had a few dark sides: ignoring the plight of Soviet dissidents, supporting Indonesia dictator Suharto, in spite of his genocide in East Timor, and double-dealing with the Kurds, [[http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/fighting_words/2006/12/our_short_national_nightmare.html as noted by]] UsefulNotes/ChristopherHitchens
* FriendlyEnemy: For all that ChevyChase did to erode Ford's public image during his presidency, Ford was actually really friendly towards him, especially after he left office. He even personally invited Chase to the "Humor and the Presidency" conference that he held at his presidential museum in 1986 and the [[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/05/Ford_55.jpeg two were photographed together there]].
* FriendlyRivalry: It can be argued that his rivalry with Ronald Reagan falls under this, as the two were never personally hostile to each other after the 1976 presidential campaign.
* GoKartingWithBowser: Despite their rivalry and Ford's hatred of him, he endorsed UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan for president in 1980. Reagan offered to make Ford his running mate, which Ford cleverly wiggled out of (see "Chess Master" above).
** When UsefulNotes/RichardNixon came down with a life-threatening illness in October 1974, Ford visited him in the hospital.
* HazyFeelTurn: Very notably, Ford became both pro-choice and pro-gay rights during his retirement.
* HeadbuttingHeroes: Ford and RonaldReagan had lasting bad blood over Reagan's challenge for the 1976 Republican nomination. Ford was furious at him for doing this, as he believed Reagan's challenge would undermine him enough for the Democrats to win the presidency; [[UsefulNotes/JimmyCarter He was right]].
** On the flip side, Ford was pretty well hated by 36th President UsefulNotes/LyndonJohnson, who regularly insulted him to the press in response to Ford's criticism of the Great Society and the Vietnam War. Most famously, Johnson said that, "Jerry Ford is so dumb he can't fart and chew gum at the same time" and that he had "played football too long without a helmet."
* HilariousInHindsight
** Despite the fact that he was a star football player and was one of the most fit and athletic presidents we have ever had, Ford would develop the reputation of being really clumsy due to a couple of incidents when he fell over in public and one where his golf club flew out of his hands and hit a spectator upside the head, all of which were ruthlessly mocked by comedian ChevyChase on SaturdayNightLive.
** Ford seriously considered appointing UsefulNotes/GeorgeHWBush as his Vice President after taking office in 1974. He eventually passed over Bush in favor of Nelson Rockefeller after deciding that Bush's skill was more in foreign policy and that he didn't have enough experience in handling domestic issues, which were at the forefront of Ford's presidential agenda. Bush would eventually become president in 1989, and his presidency was marked by an amazingly competent and successful foreign policy and a rather inept handling of domestic issues, which would play a key part in him being unseated by UsefulNotes/BillClinton in 1992.
** As noted above, his earlier promise to his wife Betty that he would retire on January 20, 1977 after his 1976 reelection bid failed.
** Ford was considered to be one of the most conservative politicians of his time. However, he looks like a bleeding-heart liberal next to a lot of today's conservative politicians. Especially considering how he became both pro-choice and pro gay rights later in life.
* HeroicRematch: We almost had one in 1980. Ford was uncomfortable with his legacy as "the accidental president" and was seriously considering running for president again during the 1980 election to win a term in his own right. It also would have served as a rematch of 1976, and he could have potentially denied Ronald Reagan the Republican nomination a second time and unseated his 1976 challenger Jimmy Carter. However, he eventually declined to run.
* [[HonestCorporateExecutive Honest President]]: Throughout his time in office as both president and as a congressman, Ford developed an ironclad reputation for honesty, integrity and being an overall nice guy. Whatever their outcome, it is believed that Ford's initiatives while in office were done with the best interests of the country and its people in mind.
** It was [[InvokedTrope invoked]] by Congressional leadership during the Watergate scandal. When Nixon was floating candidates to replace the disgraced Spiro Agnew as Vice-President, the Democratic-controlled Congress told Nixon outright that the only Republican they would approve was Ford, due to his reputation as an honest leader in the House of Representatives.
* IDidWhatIHadToDo: How Ford felt about his decision to pardon Nixon, despite the damage it did to the public's perception of him. Many historians have begun to agree it was the right decision. As Ford put it in his 1979 autobiography ''A Time to Heal'':
-->"America needed recovery, not revenge. The hate had to be drained and the healing begun."
* ImGoingToHellForThis: Knowing exactly how unpopular the decision would be, he once remarked, "I know I will go to hell, because I pardoned Richard Nixon."
* NeverLiveItDown: Ford being the "accidental president" who was never elected severely hampered his time in office. He was viewed by Congress (which fell into the control of the Democrats during the 1974 midterms) as nothing more than a caretaker and thus was never taken seriously by them when he tried to advocate for or push through legislation.
* NiceGuy: The overall summary of Ford's public image.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: During his bid for reelection in 1976, he initially started well behind Democratic challenger UsefulNotes/JimmyCarter in the polls, but steadily regained ground throughout his campaign, aided by him being the sitting president during the United States Bicentennial, a couple gaffes by Carter and a strong performance in the first presidential debate. After the said debate, Ford was tied with Carter in the polls and had a genuinely good chance of being reelected. However, during the second presidential debate, Ford famously proclaimed, "There is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe and there never will be under a Ford administration." While what Ford said was correct as it was consistent with official US foreign policy since the Soviet Union's formation, it made him look flat-out delusional and allowed Carter to win the presidency. It is now considered one of the worst gaffes in American political history.
* ObfuscatingStupidity: Despite having above-average intellect and being political savvy, Ford gained the image among the general public as a bumbling everyman. This is thanks in no small part to how he frequently committed visual gaffes during his presidency:
** Most famously, he fell down the steps of Air Force One
** Once while golfing, his club flew out of his hands and hit a spectator upside the head. He also accidentally hit shots into the crowd on occasion, hitting a few observers with golf balls.
** While playing tennis, he once hit the ball into his opponent's head.
** While sitting on a couch, he crossed his legs and unwittingly put the heel of his shoe into a plate of cheese on the coffee table in front of him.
** He once gave a speech while wearing a pair of shoes that noticeably didn't match the suit he was wearing.
* OddFriendship: While they were not necessarily friends, Ford held a notable admiration for UsefulNotes/HillaryClinton, a prominent Democrat. He even believed she had a serious chance of being the nation's first female president. He had mixed feelings about her husband UsefulNotes/BillClinton, who Ford had visited in the White House and advised multiple times, due to reservations about his personal life and character, especially in the wake of the Lewinsky scandal; Ford believed that Clinton is a sex addict.
* OurPresidentsAreDifferent: Ford is the TropeCodifier for both the "President Personable" and "President Focus Group" variants. Also fits the "President Buffoon" variant.
* {{Retirony}}: Played with. He initially decided that he would retire at the end of his term on January 20, 1977 after handing over power to whoever would win the 1976 election, even making a promise to his wife Betty to do so. However, he would change his mind at some point during his term and ran for a term of his own in the 1976 election, which he narrowly lost to JimmyCarter.
* TheRival: UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan
* VindicatedByHistory: Even though there is little debate over the fact that Ford's administration was mediocre at best, he is still viewed largely positively as the American people account for how he never initially sought the office of President and happened to be thrown into it by pure chance as a result of the fallout from the Watergate scandal. Historians also praise the way he presided over the American Bicentennial, stating that it helped the American people move on from Watergate and the Vietnam War and feel a sense of pride in their country again.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Ford's biography is littered with these.
** What if he would have accepted either offer from the Detroit Lions or the Green Bay Packers and became a NFL player instead of studying law?
** What if he would have made UsefulNotes/GeorgeHWBush his vice president instead of Nelson Rockefeller?
** What if he wouldn't have pardoned Nixon?
** What if he would have won reelection in 1976?
** What if he would have run again in 1980?
** What if Nixon wasn't corrupt and thus Watergate would have never happened?
* WhatTheHellHero: The nation's general response to his pardon on Richard Nixon.
** Or, on the other side of the coin, Ford's reaction to Ronald Reagan challenging him for the Republican nomination in 1976.
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: While Ford was satisfied with Nelson Rockefeller's job as vice president and wanted to keep him as his running mate in the 1976 election, he eventually convinced Rockefeller to stand down and made Bob Dole his running mate to gather the support of right-wing Reagan supporters.