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,...

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