Ford's Clumsiness

(CBS)  Weekly commentary by CBS Evening News chief Washington correspondent and Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer.

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Gerald Ford was an athlete in his youth, took care of himself all his life and was in great shape when he came to the White House.

Yet, after he took a tumble or two on the ski slopes and then slipped one rainy day and fell headlong down the stairs coming off Air Force One, he developed the reputation for clumsiness. The joke was Vice President Rockefeller was just a banana peel from the presidency.

It was completely unfair but partly my fault, because I wrote a lot of those stories, but as someone said, "What are you gonna do, if the president takes a header? Keep it a secret?"

The stories were great sight gags, but during the 1976 campaign I learned the hard way that the gods have a way of getting even with those who tell the same joke too many times.

When Mr. Ford stumbled, missed the door and bumped his head after a speech from the rear platform of a train in Kalamazoo, Mich., I filed the obligatory story.

I thought it was hilarious but afterward, as I rushed to catch a plane for the next campaign stop, it didn't seem quite so funny. As I was boarding the plane someone hollered at me and, momentarily distracted, I walked head-on into the overhead luggage rack, brained myself and for an instant saw stars and passed out.

I wasn't really hurt but the next time I saw the president, it seemed only fair to tell him about it. He laughed out loud and said, "By God, I just wish I could have been there to see it."

I think he meant it, too.

By Bob Schieffer

[blackchild4]

Our presidents are disrespected in life, but in death we all tell lies.

[elgraz]

pulsarone,
YOU HAVE TOO MUCH TIME ON YOUR HANDS AMIGO. WHY DON'T YOU GET A LIFE?

[elgraz]

GOD BLESS GERALD FORD. MAY YOU FIND ETERNAL HAPPINESS WITH THE CREATOR

[educates]

The Poet is our conscience. T.S. Elliot ranks with the best at tearing my eyes.
I was a Democrat for Ford. Ford had the kind of style a former President should exhibit. It makes his words so much more elegant when he speaks from the grave to tell us how wrong Iraq is, and how strong and forgiving a personal friend must be. He was man enough to put friendship at the fore and forgive a friend by pardoning ***. He is the kind of person we want in a friend and president.
educates

[emtak1]

It wasn't really fair but in the able comedic hands of Chevy Chase it was pretty *** funny!

I think Ford didn't make a big thing out of his very human limitations. But, like Bob Shieffer, laughed along with us.

The president never forgot that he was just one of us, American.

[lucasnico]

his biggest fall was the one he took for Nixon.

[pulsarone]

history in the end, New Year 2006-2007

%u201Cnot with a bang but a whimper%u201D The Hollow Men, T.S. Eliot





Anger

filling the soul,

anger

making the heart shrink,

anger

turning the world grey,



ineffectual.



Shriek to cars passing.

Pound on doors slamming.

Rail at streetlights darkened.



Dust accumulates under unoccupied beds.

Water drips from faucets, ignored.

Cement crumbles,

sidewalks disappear,

cracks form in wood and brick,

buildings slowly disintegrate and return to the ground.



Who will care

to make the repair?



It is too late to do the chores.



Cities in the deserts return to the sand.

The metropolis on the shore is swallowed by the sea.

Trees grow and die and disappear forever.

Once thriving seas ripple with death.

Nurturing Earth has been decimated.

The people, oh the people!

The promise of civilization withers.



The planet turns and the sun shines,

but life of the planet did not fight the last battle.

Surrender was the easy road taken.