Examining Gerald Ford's 'nice guy' legacy

Brinkley succinctly and accessibly details Ford's long Congressional career. As Brinkley makes clear, Ford's lifelong ambition was to become not president but speaker of the House. After graduating from the University of Michigan, where he was a football standout, he went on to Yale Law School and then the South Pacific during World War II.

In 1948 , Ford, a Republican, jumped into politics, challenging an isolationist congressman from his home district. As a campaigner, Ford was not renowned for his brilliance or soaring oratory, but, notes Brinkley, "he combined his athlete's backslapping bonhomie with simple, nice-guy good manners. He spoke pretty well but, more important, he listened brilliantly." In our present political landscape of scorched-earth partisanship, Ford's friendly political style stands out in sharp relief.

Brinkley shows how Ford built his career in Congress as a bland, nonideological, yet highly effective crafter of bipartisan coalitions. But Ford also remained loyal to his party and the president. When President Johnson announced an escalation of US troop levels in Vietnam, Ford typically followed along. After the infamous burglary at the Watergate Hotel complex, in 1972, White House officials assured Representative Ford that President Nixon was not involved. The steadfast Ford typically believed them and even worked successfully to squelch initial Congressional hearings into Watergate. Brinkley notes that Ford's spectacular sense of decency worked against him with Nixon because "he couldn't grasp the level of deviousness Nixon had."

In 1973 , Nixon's vice president, Spiro Agnew, resigned under indictment, and Nixon selected Representative Ford as his replacement. Nixon had found a supporter, liked by all, who wouldn't ask questions. As vice president, Ford worked tirelessly, says Brinkley, "to promote Nixon's innocence." As evidence mounted that Nixon not only knew about the Watergate burglary and cover-up but had organized them, Ford spoke out repeatedly in support of the president.