Most major media outlets are abuzz with news that former President Gerald Ford has passed away, due to unspecified causes.
One common theme in the obits running today (quoting the Wall Street Journal (subscriber link)):
He took office minutes after Mr. Nixon flew off into exile and declared “our long national nightmare is over.” But he revived the debate a month later by granting Mr. Nixon a pardon for all crimes he committed as president. That single act came to define his presidency and was widely believed to have cost Mr. Ford an election to his own in 1976. But the pardon won praise in later years as a courageous act that allowed the nation to move on.
One bit of trivia I learned today — I never realized that Ford was one of four-finalists in the contest to replace Agnew as Nixon’s veep. One of the other finalists was Ronald Reagan.
What a difference there could have been in history if Reagan had been made veep over Ford.