I just heard this on ESPN..............President Ford has just passed away at age 93.
http://keyetv.com/topstories/topstories_story_227195601.html(AP) LOS ANGELES
Gerald R. Ford, the 38th president of the United States, has died.Details on his death Tuesday were not immediately available.
Ford had been fitted in August at the Mayo Clinic with an implantable cardiac pacemaker to regulate his heartbeat after he had been admitted to a Colorado Clini days earlier for tests.
In January 2006, he was hospitalized for 12 days in Rancho Mirage, Calif., for pneumonia. Then in July, Ford spent a few days in Colorado's Vail Valley Medical Center because of shortness of breath.
Ford became the nation's oldest living former president after the death of Ronald Reagan in 2004.
Ford and his wife, Betty, lived in Rancho Mirage, Calif.
Ford was House minority leader when President Nixon chose him to replace Spiro Agnew, who resigned, as vice president in 1973. Ford became president on Aug. 9, 1974, when Nixon resigned amid the Watergate scandal.
When Gerald R. Ford took the presidential oath of office, he famously declared, "My fellow Americans, our long, national nightmare is over."
Ford had been the first vice president chosen under the terms of the 25th Amendment and, in the aftermath of the Watergate scandal, was succeeding the first President ever to resign.
Ford spoke to CBS News in 2000 about that challenging time.
"People had lost faith in their government, there was disillusionment about public officials," he said. "That was a very very bad time in the history of the country."
When Spiro Agnew resigned the office of Vice President of the United States late in 1973, after pleading no contest to a charge of income tax evasion, President Nixon was empowered by the 25th Amendment to appoint a new vice president.
Presumably, he needed someone who could work with Congress, survive close scrutiny of his political career and private life, and be confirmed quickly. He chose Gerald R. Ford, and following the most thorough background investigation in the history of the FBI, Ford was confirmed and sworn in on Dec. 6, 1973.
The specter of the Watergate scandal, the break-in at Democratic headquarters during the 1972 campaign and the ensuing cover-up by Nixon administration officials, hung over Ford's nine-month tenure as vice president.
When it became apparent that evidence, public opinion, and the mood in Congress were all pointing toward impeachment, Nixon became the first president in U.S. history to resign from that office.
Ford became president not because he was popular with the American public, not because he campaigned for the job, but because of his character. His colleagues in Congress put him in the White House because he told the truth and kept his word.
Ford personified what Nixon was not: Ford was honest, he could be trusted.
Throughout 25 years in the House of Representatives, Ford had proved himself to be a man of integrity. It was for that integrity that the highest powers of Congress, Democratic and Republican, chose Ford to be vice president, knowing that Nixon's presidency was doomed.
After one month in office, President Ford concluded it was time to move past Watergate. Believing that protracted impeachment proceedings would keep the country mired in Watergate and unable to address the other problems facing it, Ford decided to grant a pardon to Richard Nixon prior to the filing of any formal criminal charges.
Public reaction was mostly negative; Ford was even suspected of having made a "deal" with the former president to pardon him if he would resign. But it was his judgment then, and it remained his judgment, that a two-year public trial of former President Nixon in the courts and by the press would be far more damaging to the progress and well-being of the country than a pardon.
Ford blamed himself for not doing a better job of justifying his decision, but he never doubted that he acted in the national interest
Ford inherited an administration plagued by a divisive war in Southeast Asia, rising inflation, and fears of energy shortages. He faced many difficult decisions including replacing Nixon's staff with his own, restoring the credibility of the presidency, and dealing with a Congress increasingly assertive of its rights and powers.
The heavily Democratic Congress often disagreed with Ford, leading to numerous confrontations and his frequent use of the veto to control government spending.
On May 14, 1975, in a dramatic move, Ford ordered U.S. forces to retake the S.S. Mayaguez, an American merchant ship seized by Cambodian gunboats two days earlier in international waters. The vessel was recovered and all 39 crewmen saved. In the preparation and execution of the rescue, however, 41 Americans lost their lives.
On two separate trips to California in September 1975, Ford was the target of assassination attempts. Both of the assailants were women: Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, a follower of Charles Manson, and Sara Jane Moore.
During the 1976 campaign, Ford fought off a strong challenge by Ronald Reagan to gain the Republican nomination. He chose Senator Robert Dole of Kansas as his running mate and succeeded in narrowing Democrat Jimmy Carter's large lead in the polls, but finally lost one of the closest elections in history. Three televised candidate debates were focal points of the campaign.
But it was the decision to pardon Richard Nixon, that my have cost him the election in 1976. He lost the election to his Democratic opponent, former Governor Jimmy Carter of Georgia - but Gerald Ford's role in history would not be forgotten.
On Inauguration Day, President Carter began his speech: "For myself and for our nation, I want to thank my predecessor for all he has done to heal our land."