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How Did Gerald Ford Become The Thirty-Eighth President?

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When Gerald Ford took office to become the thirty-eighth president many challenges and uncertainties that were ahead. The economy was horrible both inflation and unemployment were rising, social issues of abortion and women’s rights were a hot topic. What the public wanted was the truth and accountability of actions that had taken place from the previous political leaders. Ford had attempted to promote the image he had of being fair and most of all his integrity by inviting the press into his life. Within a few months Ford had become a laughing stock comedian Chevy Chase had impersonated him on Saturday Night Live after falling down the stairs of an air plane twice a trip to Austria and Michigan. Journalists had begun teasing by …show more content…

For twenty five years he had been a congress in Michigan and a majority leader for eight. After the pardoning of Nixon Ford’s approval rating went down to forty-nine percent. According to a time magazine poll fifty eight percent thought Ford had done the wrong thing pardoning Nixon while seventy-one percent thought the whole truth was not being told. To solve the problem of the economy Ford went to congress with a program called the Whip Inflation Now plan that encouraged personal savings and disciplined spending habits. Introducing the economic proposal to the public in a televised address to congress in October 1974 on ten areas that needed joint action including food, energy, the clean air act. Posted in the America President blog “The campaign did not work as President Ford had hoped. Inflation remained a threat to the economy well into the Reagan presidency … the pins were widely mocked and it gave Ford’s opponents an easy target for criticism.” (Farber) The Win campaign did not last long many felt the campaign was a just seen as a gimmick. The Republican sources of abortion frames mentions Ford spoke out that he

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