Gerald R. Ford Quotes
I am acutely aware that I have received the votes of none of you.
When Richard Nixon resigned the presidency Gerald Ford became America's first president who had not been elected to national office.
Gerald R. Ford, 1913–2006, 38th President of the United States (Republican, MI), Speaker of the House, National Address, August 9, 1974
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
When reporters asked him why Hubert Humphrey did not carry Illinois in the 1968 presidential election, His Honor replied:
Early in the year the President asked his most experienced political strategist what was likely to happen in the Presidential election that was upcoming later that year. The Vietnam War was tearing the country apart. He had lost the South because of the Civil Rights laws he has passed. For the rest of the country, the war hardliners wanted someone more aggressive than him, and the Doves wanted us out of Vietnam. Johnson, in a great political tragedy, even though he thought the war was unwinnable, could not bring himself to be the first American President to lose a war. He soon would decide to withdraw from the race but not pull out of Vietnam. See {637677} and {637678}.
Nixon’s remark {583773} had been suppressed by the Nixon family and McGovern and the world first heard it 40 years after the fact.
The President was about to give his State of the Nation address that evening.
The early returns of the presidential election of 1888 showed Harrison trailing. His supporters were glum.
Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. was an American politician and attorney who served as the 38th president of the United States from 1974 to 1977. A member of the Republican Party, Ford previously served as the 40th vice president of the United States from 1973 to 1974. To date, Ford is the only person to have served as both vice president and president without being elected to either office by the Electoral College.
