Word: forde
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...years and 180,000 driving miles later, and last month Schofield delivered to me the third of his creations. The first was a big, boxy Ford van that he built for me a couple of months after our first meeting, and after I'd spent half a dozen Sundays driving with him in the prototype through the streets of Springfield, testing out his technology and my reflexes. The noble beast, now retired, still stands in my driveway...
Most others on that Aug. 8, 1974, were searching the facade of the nearby Old Executive Office Building and wondering behind which of the lighted windows sat Vice President Gerald Ford, who the next day would become the most powerful man in the world, a man who last week thought back and said, "I never asked for it. I never wanted it. But I never was afraid...
...Ford laughed when he talked about his assumption of power. He and his wife Betty had been worrying about furniture and drapes for the new Vice President's residence up on Observatory Hill. Ford knew a political fire storm was on the way. But he kept hearing whispers from others about Nixon's ambivalence: fight, don't fight, hang in, resign. "I was 90% certain that sooner or later he had to resign," recalled Ford. "I was certain the die was cast for impeachment. If Nixon had decided to fight the House and the Senate, it would have been...
Nixon called a Cabinet meeting for that Tuesday, Aug. 6. Ford felt that the President was in fantasyland. There were demonstrators along Pennsylvania Avenue. The headlines screamed for Nixon's resignation. Nixon wanted to talk about inflation and the U.S. economy. Ford stared across the Cabinet table in wonder at this odd tableau. "The 'smoking gun' tape was out--the country was up in arms about it," recounted Ford. "Nixon was just plain out of touch, and his mind off there somewhere...
...That is when I read a statement that I could no longer defend the Administration or participate on the President's behalf," recalled Ford. "I looked over at Nixon, and he was shocked. I wasn't sure what would happen. Then the strangest thing of all took place. Instead of blowing up or criticizing me, Nixon complimented me for taking exactly the right position. I would not say he was mentally incompetent then, but he was strained emotionally...