Ford targets right wingers in interview published after his death

[Thorgrim]

-Ford inveighed against Reagan's budget deficits: "With all his pronouncements about needing to balance the federal budget, his eight years were about as bad as any in the history of the country."

-Ford lamented that George H.W. Bush had not reversed their party's rightward movement: "I was disappointed that George didn't fight a little harder against the hard right."

-Ford reminded me that he and Betty were "pro-choice." He criticized Bush Senior's public avowal that he had come to oppose abortion rights. "I know damn well that he and Barbara are pro-choice," Ford told me. "Why didn't they get up and say it? That really disappointed me more than anything."

From Watergate to Iraq, Gerald Ford's Influence - Newsweek National News - MSNBC.com

Nice to see that since Watergate, in over 30 years, only 2 out of 6 US Presidents have been anti-choice

His continual disgust with the hard right of the GOP points to a larger problem, the red meat conservatives (you see them on this board) and your average Republican or moderate who votes Republican that is having second thoughts...remember in 2006 the GOP turn out machine went perfectly, there was a huge conservative GOP turn out, unlike 1994 when Democrats just didn't see it coming and didn't turn out at all

I always like to see Republicans talk about the failures of Reagan, Nixon talked about how Reagan didn't bring down the Soviets, they were already set to collapse when Reagan took office, Ford talks about how ridiculous Reagan's budget policies were...

[RMNIXON]

I could not possibly be one of those "Red Meat" conservatives on the board since I am Pro-Choice although I don't think abortion is often the right choice and nothing to celebrate!

Ford ceratinly has room to be a critic of Federal Spending period. I am not sure where you got "disgust" of just Republicans out of that. Reagan not holding a harder line with a total eight year Democrat Congress who legislate the actual spending is legit. Hardly points for the Democrat side. Welfare reform would have been a good starting place more than a decade earlier. The amount of Federal waste and family unit destruction was terrible.

I certainly would not be so fool to suggest that those who would portray Clinton too liberal in his first years in office really wanted people to run to the Republicans for answers instead of trying to reform their own party? Because that suggestion would just be stupid......

[RMNIXON]

Here is a link to all of Newsweeks liberal bias edits before the above edits:


From Watergate to Iraq, Gerald Ford's Influence - Newsweek National News - MSNBC.com


Ford told me, "My wife and I are moderate Republicans. We felt uncomfortable at the last [1992] convention. And … unless things change, we'll feel uncomfortable in the next one—if we go." (They went.) Ford lamented that George H.W. Bush had not reversed their party's rightward movement: "I was disappointed that George didn't fight a little harder against the hard right." Asked to reply to the remark last week, the senior Bush said: "He never told me that, but that's not surprising. He was a much more moderate guy in his later years."


In Beaver Creek, Ford reminded me that he and Betty were "pro-choice." He criticized Bush Senior's public avowal that he had come to oppose abortion rights. "I know damn well that he and Barbara are pro-choice," Ford told me. "Why didn't they get up and say it? That really disappointed me more than anything." Ford's comment, Bush says, was off the mark. "That's wrong," he says of Ford's suggestion that Bush was secretly pro-choice. (Barbara Bush wrote about her own pro-choice views in her 1994 memoir.)


Despite what he considered to be Reagan's damage to his candidacy, Ford campaigned enthusiastically when Reagan was nominated against Jimmy Carter in 1980. "I felt that Carter had been so mediocre on domestic policy that we had to have a change," Ford told me.


After Reagan's election, Ford was disappointed that, despite his contribution to the victory, the 40th president didn't consult him "as much as I would have expected he would." In our talk, Ford inveighed against Reagan's budget deficits: "With all his pronouncements about needing to balance the federal budget, his eight years were about as bad as any in the history of the country." Still, he conceded that as president, Reagan "did a much better job than I expected."