Christopher Hitchens dissents
December 29th, 2006 | by Craig R. Harmon |from the universal praise of Ford’s presidency.
UPDATES:
Peggy Noonan, on the other hand, thinks “We were lucky to have him. We were really lucky to have him. Rest in peace.”
Richard Ben-Veniste, a member of the prosecuting team that would have prosecuted Nixon believes that “Jerry Ford acted in accord with what he sincerely felt were the best interests of the country“.
Patrick Buchanan, in what is not so much a eulogy to President Ford as a condemnation of Liberalism of the time, says, “Gerald Ford was a non-ideological man in an ideological age, a nice man in nasty times.”
MORE UPDATES:
Art Cyr says, “Gerald Ford remains the right president at one particular moment in history.”
Robert Novak writes, “He is fondly remembered not for his failed presidency, but for not becoming another Nixon as Nixon’s appointed successor.”
Bob Dole says of President Ford’s pardon that likely lost his election bid, “He showed his willingness to put the country’s interest first.”
Rep. John Dingell says of him, “[H]e simply possessed a remarkable sense of self, strong patriotism and astute common sense.”
And George Will remembers Ford as “a political sedative for a nation with jangled nerves.“
6 Responses to “Christopher Hitchens dissents”
By Jersey McJones on Dec 30, 2006 | Reply
I guess staring mortality in the face can make a man rethink some of his lesser thoughts.
JMJ
By sandyb on Dec 30, 2006 | Reply
Ford was honor, humor, and humility.
By Craig R. Harmon on Dec 30, 2006 | Reply
I guess it can at that, Jersey.
By tammara on Dec 30, 2006 | Reply
long live hitchens. hard to imagine how such a nice man could have made such a mess that stretched into today…. and if you find that hard, try this…. he just wasn’t that nice. just looked that way. doesn’t surprize me that sandy would be taken in by that… however, as a historian, i wasn’t. none of what hitchens relates in the article was news to me.
by this token, everyone should come out of the woodwork and write nice articles about saddam too. the man was likely pyschotic, certainly a despot, but by god, he was our psychotic despot.
By Jersey McJones on Jan 1, 2007 | Reply
Well, Saddam probably meant well. We all may think we’re right at any given moment, and we all are capable of doing horrible things with whatever power we have, at times. We all do. Things got sticky for Hussein when the war with Iran happened. (Gee… I wonder what Superpower wanted THAT to happen(ed)?) Things just went downhill from there. Hey, remember: no war with Iran = no oil price rise = no invasion of Kuwait = no current miserable, failed war. If ever there was Blowback, the War on Iraq is the epitome.
Craig - once again - good man! You always find a way to make me sympathetic to the Right. Do you read a lot of Buckley? I’d swear you do. I know I did, and I am a proud Lib who thinks that ol’ WFB is a great mind. I may not agree with him all the time, but I damn sure respect his opinions.
JMJ
By Craig R. Harmon on Jan 2, 2007 | Reply
Buckley, yeh, I’ve always admired him. Could never read more than a sentence or two without a good dictionary to look up words I’d never heard before words I’d swear he made up on the spot but actually are words. I have a pretty wide vocabulary. I admire anyone who can send me to the dictionary as often as Buckley can.