Gerald Ford, Dead at 93

Before the hagiography starts, we should remember this from 1974:

Throughout the most painful week of Gerald Ford's fledgling presidency, public protest continued to batter the White House. Far from easing after the first shock of Ford's precipitate pardon of Richard Nixon for any and all federal crimes committed during his presidency, the controversy grew. It was fed partly by Ford's refusal to explain further his mysterious reversal on his Executive intervention, partly by White House fumbling on whether all the other Watergate offenders might also be pardoned. Ford's inexperienced aides —almost all of whom had opposed the timing of the pardon—were left scrambling futilely to justify the President's action.

However decent Ford may have been, his pardon of Nixon set the stage for the criminal actions of the Reagan and Bush administrations.

Requiescat in pacem.