The office of the President of the United States is greater than the man who holds that office. Regardless of where our politics lie, there is something about that office that usually results in a great deal of respect from ‘we the people.’

All presidents have had their moments of brilliance, as well as those times that are less than honorable, but the office remains.

Gerald Ford knew that. When he took office the country was hurting much as it is today. The president who preceeded him left in scandal, an unwise war was raging in a land that few Americans knew other than as a place of conflict, and major areas of the economy were in distress. Most of the attention of the media and Congress at the time was on the Watergate scandal.

In an effort to move the nation onward, to help us focus on the more severe problems facing the nation, President Ford pardoned his predecessor. That action is probably the single incident that cost him the 1976 election, but it shifted focus to the problems affecting ordinary Americans.

THAT is what being president is all about.