Goodbye to Jerry

In the end, Gerald Ford could not quite bring it off. But he came achingly close to duplicating the upset victory of the fighting underdog he so much admired, Harry Truman, and he cannot be faulted for not trying. From the beginning, it was a long shot--an accidental President swept into office on a wave of scandal, stuck with the worst recession since World War II, confronted with a charismatic opponent in a bitter primary fight and then with an all-things-to-all-people Democrat in the general election.

To try to overcome Carter's massive lead, Ford's strategists put together a detailed campaign plan in the weeks before the Republican Convention. The carefully crafted 120-page document advised the President to resist his natural impulse to campaign and instead to stay put in the White House. He lacked the style to win on the hustings; his best bet was to appear presidential while Carter got into trouble on the road. "You cannot overcome the Carter lead on your own no matter what you do," the report warned with almost brutal candor. "You are not now perceived as being a strong, decisive leader by anywhere near a majority of the American people . . . You cannot possibly win without a highly disciplined and directionalized campaign."

Urged to challenge Carter to debate, Ford did so in his rafter-ringing acceptance speech. Says Houston Lawyer James Baker, Ford's third and best campaign chairman: "Even if you concede that we might have lost two out of three debates, I would argue that we still got more out of the challenge than we lost, because the American people had an opportunity to see that Carter was all over the place on the issues."

Ford stumbled some, but he was not to blame for the damaging investigation of his campaign finances by the Watergate special prosecutor; the inquiry that plagued his campaign for three weeks was prompted by a single informant, whose identity is still not known. Ford's chief campaign asset was probably his character. The President appeared straightforward and reliable. Only his pardon of Nixon was held against him as a moral question mark. Ford hoped that his openness would have more appeal to the voters than Carter's enigmas.

It was not to be. Ford was deprived of what he most wanted in life: to gain the nation's highest office on his own, not to go down in history as an accidental President. Unprepared for defeat, Ford has no plans for the future. He has mused about taking an academic post, perhaps at his alma mater, the University of Michigan. His friends in Grand Rapids hope he will visit there often, but they realize that he is likely to remain in Washington, the city that has absorbed so much of his life and energy. He might return to law. A position in a prestigious firm would let him stay in touch with the Republican political and business establishment. It would also help him to care for his ailing wife, whose health was not helped by the grueling campaign, and his four children, all at least partially dependent on him financially.

Being Jerry Ford, he will be a good loser--but a residue of bitterness is inevitable. He was fully convinced he could win the race and he disdained his opponent. There is no chance that he will make another try for the presidency--and almost none that he will seek any other elective office. In Republican Party councils, he will be welcomed as an elder, respected statesman. He did nothing to disgrace himself as President or campaigner. As he claimed, he restored trust and integrity to the presidency. And that was no accident.

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