Elaine Liner
is Caller-Times' media critic. Her columns are published Tuesdays, Thursdays,
and Sundays. She has been known to occasionally gossip with her readers in the
Elaine
Liner Forum. Elaine can be reached at linere@caller.com
Sunday, January 16, 2000
Former presidents comment on their terms
The PBS series let’s former office holders comment on their own terms
LOS ANGELES - President Gerald Ford watches "The West Wing," still believes in his Warren Commission findings (he’s the only member still living), and thinks the American people might be ready for a woman president - if they don’t have to elect her directly.
As the first chief executive to meet with the Television Critics Association, the former president addressed a wide variety of topics during a luncheon in honor of PBS’ "The American President" series, which premieres April 9. The 10-part series chronicles the lives of all the presidents and lets the still-living ones (except Ronald Reagan, who was too ill to participate) comment on their own terms in office.
Accompanied by a small retinue of Secret Service agents, who were so inconspicuous they blended into the lunch crowd, Ford, now in his mid-80s, seemed full of energy and ideas. He was friendly, funny and easily approachable as journalists spoke to him throughout a lunch with a menu that included steak from Michigan (his home state as a congressman) and a white chocolate dessert shaped like a miniature White House (Ford gobbled it right down).
"Betty and I watched ‘The West Wing’ once or twice," said Ford, referring to the NBC drama starring Martin Sheen as a beleaguered Democratic president. "It’s interesting to see how television portrays what they think happens in the West Wing."
Spoofing didn’t faze him
Television, specifically Chevy Chase on "Saturday Night Live," typically has portrayed Ford as a clumsy oaf more famous for stumbling than policy-making during his short term in office in the mid-1970s. More recently, "SNL" has recycled some Ford-isms on its animated feature called "The Ex-Presidents."
Ford said he tries to ignore the comedic barbs on "SNL."
"Betty and I don’t stay up that late. We’ve been (a subject) on that program going back from when we were in the White House," Ford said. "A politician, at whatever level, if he has any common sense, will not react adversely (to being spoofed). You smile and enjoy it and walk away."
He has never tried to sidestep criticism about his still-controversial pardon of President Richard Nixon in 1974.
"I’m as firm in my conviction that I did the right thing as I was when I did it in 1974. We had a whole range of tough, tough decisions domestically and internationally and I was spending 25 percent of my time listening to the lawyers and the Department of Justice telling me what I could or couldn’t do with Mr. Nixon’s papers, tapes, et cetera. The quickest way to get that problem off my desk was to give a pardon," said Ford.
Firm on Warren report
On the Warren Commission findings that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in the JFK assassination: "Seven of us unanimously agreed that Oswald committed the assassination and that we as a commission found no evidence of a conspiracy, foreign or domestic. I emphasize ‘found no evidence’ because our collective wisdom was we couldn’t say there was no evidence. I think we were right, because at that time, there was no evidence of a conspiracy. And I have seen no subsequent evidence that would change my view."
On a woman becoming president: "I believe that maybe this year, maybe four years from now, either the Democrats or the Republicans will nominate a male president and a female vice president. They will win. They are sworn in. Then the male will either die in office or what have you and the female vice president will take over. I only say to my male friends, once that happens, we (meaning men in office) are through."
On the Lewinsky-Clinton scandal: "It had the effect of undercutting the office during that period. As a consequence, there was a decrease in the public appreciation and respect for the White House itself."
On his advice to Clinton about retirement: "He’s going to be active. He’s young. He’s articulate. He wants to do things. So I suspect he’ll get interested in some charities. Or he may affiliate with some law firm or become president of some educational institution. I think it’s premature to try and tell him what to do now that they’re going to live in New York."
Also this week:
The mystery of mountain climber George Leigh Mallory is solved on "Nova: Lost on Everest" (8 p.m., Tuesday, PBS). This documentary tells the inside story of the expedition last year that found the body of the explorer, who was lost on the upper slopes of Mt. Everest in 1924. Renowned climber David Brashears discusses the chances that Mallory and fellow climber Andrew Irvine may have been the first to reach the summit of the great peak, decades before Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay received recognition for the feat in 1953.
Following "Nova," PBS’ fine documentary series "Frontline" presents "The Killer at Thurston High" (9 p.m., Tuesday) a 90-minute look inside the mind of young Kip Kinkel, who killed his parents and then opened fire on schoolmates at a high school in Springfield, Ore. Included among the interviews are his sister, his high school friends (who still visit Kinkel in prison), the school principal and a psychologist who evaluated Kinkel’s state of mind shortly before the killings.
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