Gerald Ford was the last of a dying breed, a species that seems as unreal to many progressives today as a unicorn: an honorable, centrist Republican President.

Ford was famously our only wholly unelected President, having replaced the disgraced Spiro T. Agnew as Vice-President and then ascending to the Presidency upon Richard Nixon’s resignation. Ford then made the tough decision to pardon Richard Nixon; a move for which he was chastised at the time, but praised by historians later for putting the ugly Watergate chapter of history behind America. This may have contributed to the Republicans’ landslide defeat in the 1974 midterms, as well as Gerald Ford’s only loss in 1976. Yet the essential decency of Ford’s character always shone through; despite the hostile political climate, Gerald Ford was nearly elected in his own right in 1976. Had the election been held a few weeks later, Ford’s momentum probably would have carried him to victory over Jimmy Carter. A few thousand votes switched in Ohio would have elected Ford, and he was certainly not helped by the New York Daily News’ famous headline after failing to bailout the city; “Ford to City: Drop Dead.”

Gerald Ford’s narrow victory over a right-wing challenge from Ronald Reagan in the 1976 primaries was a harbinger of the direction the Republican Party would take. Gerald Ford was the last Republican President to come from the ranks of the entrepreneurial, small-town Midwest, and was the kind of man who dominated the Republican Party from the beginning of the twentieth century through the Goldwater Revolution. Ford was a committed internationalist as well as an anti-Communist, in favor of civil rights and civil liberties, and a small government, but not one so minute as to be cruel and ineffective. Ford’s Vice-President, Nelson Rockefeller, exemplified the fundamentally liberal Republican elite that would soon become obsolete in American politics. The Republican Party instead came to speak with a Southern accent, dominated by theocrats and overwhelming corporate power. Gerald Ford remained proudly pro-choice until the end in a party where such views had become unfashionable and Ford would not apologize for appointing John Paul Stevens to the Supreme Court, a man savaged by most of today’s conservatives as a “liberal activist.”

President Ford’s record as president in domestic and foreign policy was mixed at best, but it is a tragedy that today’s Republican Party is more a Party of Bush than a Party of Ford.

TIME.com:

He was not only an accidental President but a famously and endearingly accident-prone one as well. Fate evidently had elaborate designs on Gerald Rudolph Ford and fulfilled them on the world’s stage in a dazzling combination of high pomp and low slapstick.

He was the nation’s first appointed Vice President, chosen in October 1973 by President Richard Nixon under the terms of the recently ratified 25th Amendment to succeed the disgraced Spiro Agnew. Less than a year later, on Aug. 9, 1974, Nixon resigned rather than face a Senate trial on three articles of impeachment passed by the House of Representatives, and Ford took the oath to be the 38th President of the U.S.

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Will Bunch at the Philadelphia Inquirer did an interesting piece on President Gerald Ford’s connection to the city of Philadelphia.

My favorite line:

A lot happened to Ford and to his nation in those six decades. But though the flat-talking Midwesterner must have seemed like a slice of white bread in the provolone-and-onion-spiced world of Philly politics, this city still played a pivotal role in his career and his brief presidency.

Read the rest of this article.

Congrats, Mr. President! Keep taking the vitamins.

From Political Wire:

According to the AP, former President Gerald Ford (R) will become the longest living president in history on Sunday at 93 years and 121 days old, surpassing former President Ronald Reagan (R).

Yes, that’s right. Former President Gerald Ford has been admitted to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota for tests.

As you may know, Gerald Ford is extremely old.

Hang in there, old buddy.

Few details exist at this point regarding Mr. Ford’s condition, but you can check out a short blurb here.

OHHHH, to be a fly on the wall when this picture was taken. Have a great evening, stay dry!