The scene of last week's TIME interview with the President was the Blue Room of the White House. Seated before a crackling fire, Ford discussed for l¼ hours his presidency and the politics of 1976. Excerpts:
Since becoming President, you have cast over 40 vetoes, which people perceive as a kind of negative leadership. How can you overcome this feeling?
Unfortunately, many people do consider a veto to be a negative action. I don't think it is. In the first place, the veto was put into the Constitution to give a President an opportunity to tell a Congress that a mere majority vote...