Gerald R. Ford

April 29, 2013
The arc of Gerald Ford’s career is unique and strange—following the resignation of Spiro Agnew from the vice-presidency in 1973, Ford was bumped from House minority leader into the second most powerful office in the land. And after Nixon stepped down, Ford stepped up, though he couldn’t keep his footing—he lost the election in 1976 that would’ve made him president via the traditional route. Cannon (Time and Chance: Gerald Ford’s Appointment with History), who served as Ford’s domestic policy adviser, presents his former boss’s life in this expertly crafted biography as one unbroken expression of “ability, integrity, and trustworthiness”—from football star in Grand Rapids, Mich., to career congressman and on to the Oval Office—though the book is not without incisive criticisms (“Lacking guile himself, rarely saw it in others”). His portrait benefits greatly from intimate contact with Ford, as well as from numerous interviews conducted post-presidency, when Ford candidly assessed his time in office in “plain words and flat Midwestern voice.” Cannon’s treatment avoids any overt political bias (though it is consistently favorable) and illuminates an oft-derided president who made up for a lack of showmanship with intelligence, understanding, and dedication. This is a first-rate political history and a compassionate biography. 17 b&w photos.

June 1, 2013
An advisor to President Gerald Ford (1913-2006) pens an admiring biography of America's most anomalous and, possibly, most underrated chief executive. In 1974, America was led by a president and vice president for whom no one had voted. The first in our history appointed to the vice presidency by means of the 25th Amendment, Ford became president when Richard Nixon resigned, as Vice President Spiro Agnew had before him, in disgrace. Throughout the course of his administration, Ford faced a country torn by the Watergate scandal, exhausted by the war in Vietnam and mired in an economic depression. Still, even with Congress in the hands of the Democrats, Ford managed to reassure the nation and restore some measure of trust in government. Cannon (Apostle Paul: A Novel, 2005, etc.) moves swiftly over Ford's early life, education and legal practice, even his distinguished 25-year congressional career. Nor, except for a brief treatment of Ford's 1980 flirtation with joining the Reagan ticket, is there much about the Michigander's 29-year post-presidency. Cannon focuses on the Constitutional crisis that brought Ford to high office, the man's exceptional character, how he dealt with the major issues and how he managed the presidency, particularly the members of his Cabinet. Although Cannon has Ford confessing to a few political sins--a misguided crusade during his congressional years against Supreme Court Justice William Douglas, the cowardly dumping of Vice President Nelson Rockefeller from the '76 ticket--and faults him for failing to win election in his own right, this insider account persuasively demonstrates that the man was a far better president than campaigner and that, at a particularly low moment in our history, we were perhaps luckier than we knew to have him. Prior to his career in government service, Cannon (who died at 93 in 2011) spent years as a journalist, and that training shows in this smoothly readable account.

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June 1, 2013
When Ford took the office of president following the resignation of Nixon, he was not a well-known political figure outside of the House of Representatives, where his highest ambition had been to be speaker. Cannon, a journalist and former domestic policy advisor to Ford, offers an examination of Ford's life in politics and how he came to be the nation's unelected president during the tumultuous Watergate era. He recounts Ford's early life, law-school years, military service, political career, and marriage as all along he garnered a reputation as a solid, honest person. Cannon chronicles the tense political atmosphere as the Watergate scandal unraveled, Nixon struggled with the decision to resign, and Ford wrestled with the decision to pardon the disgraced president. All the drama of Watergate is here, along with the major players, and Ford is at the center as a sometimes enigmatic figure, acknowledging that he never squarely asked Nixon about his guilt and remained ambivalent about that decision. Cannon portrays a man who, despite the shadow of the Nixon pardon clouding his presidency, maintained an honorable reputation in the often unsavory business of politics.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)