Cynical Nation

That Ford "can't walk and chew gum at the same time" was something LBJ said about him and it was actually "can't fart and chew gum at the same time". He also seems to have been able to laugh at himself. And that's remarkable.

My favorite thing about Ford? He appointed John Paul Stevens to the SCOTUS.

He was also the last Vice Pres to live in his own home; Rocky was the first to occupy the then-new VP Mansion.

He was the only President born with a different name.

He may have been the only President who married a divorced woman.

He was the last surviving member of the Warren Commission.

Fred, somehow I knew you'd step up. ;-)

> My favorite thing about Ford? He appointed John Paul Stevens to the SCOTUS.

Hippie. :P

>
Hippie. :P

Yep. :D

Oh! And he was a football player! He was actually on a winning U of Michigan team and was actually recruited by the NFL!

Only President to have a first or middle name named after one of Santa's reindeers. Unless Milhouse was a reindeer or Coolidge's middle name was Cupid.

Yeah, he was quite an athlete back in the day, which always seemed tough to square with the accident-prone POTUS we remember.

Also, he faced multiple assassination attempts! Why? It's hard to imagine a blander, more inoffensive prez. And the truly despised presidents of my lifetime were never shot at -- not yet, anyway.

OK smart guys--without looking it up, name the 2 people who 'tried' to assassinate him. One got off a shot, the other didn't. NO cheating!

One of them was Squeaky Fromme.

Correct on Squeaky. She might have been the only Presidential assassin or would be assassin not to be referred to by three names, other than Garfield's and McKinley's. John Wilkes Booth, Lee Harvey Oswald, John Warnock Hinckley, Mark David Chapman, Sirhan Sirhan Sirhan, James Earl Ray...and (the other one who shot at Ford)...

Butros Butros Ghali?

Nope? Sorry, I'm drawing a blank on the second.

But I did remember RFK's assassin being called by two Sirhan's rather than three. Wasn't his middle name something else? Like Bishara or something?

Yes, Bishara or something like that. Leroy maybe.

Sara Jane Moore was the kindly grandmother type who took a shot at Ford. In San Fran.

Never would've got Sara Jane Moore, though I'd say there's no such thing as a "kindly grandmother type" from San Francisco.
In fact, here's what a brief bio says about her, "A former nursing school student, Women's Army Corps recruit, and accountant, Moore had five husbands before she turned to revolutionary politics in her forties."

Yeah, five failed marriages might turn you to revolutionary politics, though, of course, it's also true that chronically dysfunctional people tend toward both domestic distress and radical politics.

Anyway, Ford was also the first Vice President chosen under the terms of the Twenty-fifth Amendment and, in the aftermath of the Watergate scandal, was succeeding the first President ever to resign from office.

He's also the only American president born in Nebraska.

>
Sara Jane Moore was the kindly grandmother type who took a shot at Ford.

What a bitch!

> Yeah, five failed marriages might turn you to revolutionary politics...

Her husbands probably got tired of hearing her bitch about the plight of the proletariat.

I only remember Squeaky Fromme because of the Sondheim musical.

I knew very little about him before today, but it seems like there was really a lot to admire about him, including his service in the Navy.

He vetoed 66 bills in his short term. 12 were overturned by Congress.

That's 66 times more than the present occupant has vetoed in more than twice the time.

I'm a bit surprised that no one has brought up the subject of Earl Butz. Perhaps given the solemnity of the occasion, that's appropriate. ;-)

...something to do with tight you-know-whats; loose shoes; and a warm place to [go to the bathroom].

Quiz:
Ex-Presidents Ford and Reagan died within 2.5 years of each other. Ex-Presidents Hoover and Eisenhower died within about 5 years of each other. Ex-Presidents Adams and Jefferson died the same day.
What 2 ex-Presidents died within a month of each other? Actually, about 27 or 28 days.

Holy Crap! Earl Butz is still alive, I see. 97 years old!

>Holy Crap! Earl Butz is still alive, I see.

Jeebus.

Not only did I know those things (and I am very proud of myself for knowing), but he was also the LAST surviving member of the Warren Commission.

Hmm... I remember William Henry Harrison died about that long after taking the oath of office, but I guess he doesn't count.

2 EX presidents who died within less than a month of each other.

An hour's up:
Truman bit the dust on 12/26 or 12/27 of 1972 and LBJ went on 1/22 or 1/23 of 1973.

Test is over.

Rats!

Doesn't anyone here remember when Squeaky was a Manson girl?
And no- I'm not talking about Marilyn Manson. Remember?
Sharon Tate? Polanski? Crazed hippies on LSD? Anybody?

To hell with that quiz: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both died on the same day - which happened to be July 4, 1826 - 50 years to the day of the Declaration!

How odd is that?

William Henry Harrison caught a cold after slipping out of the WH to buy some groceries in March 1841, days after he was sworn in. The cold turned into pleurisy and he was gone after 30 days in office.

Another early exit was Zachary Taylor who became ill during the July 4th 1850 festivities and died 5 days later after 15 plus months in office.

James Abram Garfield was inaugerated on March 4, 1881, shot in the back by Charles Guiteau on July 2, 1881 and died in Elberon, NJ on September 19 so he was a shorty as well!

When was the most recent instance when there were NO ex-Presidents alive. (please specify time period).

From January 1973 when LBJ died until August 1974 when Nixon resigned.

> Doesn't anyone here remember when Squeaky was a Manson girl?

I do. I still think of her as that first and foremost.

Since he was the last living Warren Commission member, does that mean we'll learn more about the testimony they ignored when writing the published report?

Since he was the last living Warren Commission member, does that mean we'll learn more about the testimony they ignored when writing the published report? [Dan O.]

Yeah, we'll now learn that W killed JFK as a 17 year old (hey, it WAS in Texas!). It prepped him for the murders of Ron Brown and Paul Wellstone.

BTW, Saddam's lawyers are gathering a last ditch appeal based on new evidence that Bush gassed the Kurds (hey, he WAS in Big Oil!) in 1988.

Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe the records on the Kennedy assassination were sealed for a period of 75 years, so we won't get to look at them until around 2039, I believe. I'll be 81. I'm looking forward to blogging that stuff.

I believe DBK's right about the 75 years...only 384 more months to go.

WoW! I'll even have my mortgage paid off by then!

Also, Pres. Ford disagreed with the justifications of going to war in Iraq, and would have worked harder on alternative solutions. He also stated that VP Cheney had changed since his Ford years, becoming somewhat obsessed with the threat of terrorism.

"Also, Pres. Ford disagreed with the justifications of going to war in Iraq, and would have worked harder on alternative solutions." (Tracy Miller)
(Tracy Miller)


There are two kinds of Westerners today, Tracy, those that understand that the WoT is actually a war between Medieval, Sharia-based Islam and the modern West and those who don't.

As a matter of fact, it's a war that's been building for decades and one that has been waged by the Arab-Muslim world against the West, in earnest (full-time) since about 1991.

Those who refuse to believe that, even those who cling to some hope of a negotiated settlement are, wittingly or not, friends (or at least "useful idiots") of the jihad.

The best thing that anyone could do, and it probably wouldn't have to be done at the Executive level, would be to break any remaining relations America has with even the most moderate parts of the Arab-Muslim world, so that this confrontation must be settled where it should be - on the battlefield.

Here's what in my view, is a delicious irony of our current predicament - Sharia-based Islam reviles especially the West's "Liberal" traditions (pro-women's rights, pro-gay rights, and the Left's vaunted anti-religiosity, among other things) and is especially aggrieved over the West's (especially America's) globalizing what it views as a most vile and "decadent culture."

There are many among those in the West who vehemently and violently oppose the mere existence of Sharia-based Islam that hold a begrudging admiration for some parts of it - their swift and harsh system of punsihment for violent thugs, pedophiles, etc., their respect and insistance upon modesty and even their deep ethnic pride.

Isn't that ironic?

If Sharia-based Islam were to ever win the day, it is the Western Liberal/"Leftist" who will be its first and primary target and in the West, the rise of Islam has swollen the ranks of ultra-nationalist Conservatives like LePen's progeny in France and Haider's Freedom Party in Austria, and this ideolgy also reviles the Western Leftist, perhaps most of all.

I mean it's almost as though folks like Michael Moore (an advocate of a "live & let live" sort of peace between the Islamic world and the West) are whistling past the graveyard that holds their very own freshly dug graves!

Believe me, that's a delicious irony, in my book.

Ford played on a Michigan football team that won the national championship. I forget which year, but it was in the early 30's. Other presidents may have played college football, but did any besides Ford for a national champion?

HAHAHHA funny facts =D