Gerald Ford's Presidency

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Gerald Ford was born in Omaha, Nebraska on July 14, 1913. In just a few weeks, his mother gave him away to her parents’ home in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She divorced Geralds biological father Leslie Lynch King Sr. and less than three years later married Gerald Rudolff Ford. This is where Gerald “Jerry” Jr. got his name although it was not made legal until he was 22 years old. When he was growing up in Grand Rapids, he became captain of the high school football team and a Eagle scout. His great athletic abilities as a wolverine at the university of Michigan earned him the award of Most Valuable Player. Instead of taking up a professional football career at Detroit or Green Bay, Ford decided to take his economics degree to Yale University. He …show more content…
It seemed as if he was going to beat Reagan in the battle for votes, but Jimmy Carter jumped in the election and won the first democratic ballot. Ford’s previous presidency with the vietnam war, the scandal, and the bankruptcy hurt the nation and was underway of recovery. Only a little over 50% of eligible voters casted ballots in 1976 and Carter won the presidential election by a narrow margin of 57 electoral college votes with 297 to Ford’s 240. When Gerald Ford took office he declared,” I assume the presidency under extraordinary circumstances…. This is an hour of history that troubles our minds and hurt our hearts.” Ford was confronted with many problems that were going on in the world. The challenges he faced were major inflation, a recovery of a depressed economy, and trying to ensure world peace. He appointed his own vice president and selected a cabinet of his own. Ford’s reputation for integrity and openness made him very popular in his 25 years in congress. He established his own policies in his first year in office. In Ford’s remaining two years of presidency he was faced with a domestic energy crisis and a weak economy marked by high inflation and …show more content…
Ford vetoed 66 pieces of legislation that confronted his philosophy of fiscal conservatism. Ford’s foreign policy generated both success and failures. He was unable to convince congress to provide military aid to South Vietnam. Later that year, Ford helped reduce tensions with the Soviet union by signing the Helsinki Accords. When Ford took office the economy was in its steepest recession since WWII. Ford then proposed to cut federal spending and raise taxes, and for small amount of time he embraced voluntary wage-price freeze. When Gerald Ford became president the nation was in much trouble. The watergate scandal fought Ford on almost every matter. His Whip Inflation Now policy failed badly. He was not successful with his domestic policy because the democrats were highly against him for the pardon with Nixon and that has put a damaging effect on anything he really tried to

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