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2. What Comes to Mind?  Only President never elected. • Son is Mike Ford of WFU.  Would later pardon Nixon of any crime related to Watergate. • Saturday Night Live!!!!!!!

3. John M. Orman  Ford was under pressure to conduct an “open” presidency 2 Goals at beginning of term:1) Restore confidence in POTUS2) Increase the nation’s morale Smith & Smith Ford had to construct rhetoric that would:1) Retain Nixon loyalists in his favor2) Establish a favorable working relationship with the House & Senate3) Establish positive relations with the press4) Restore confidence in, not just POTUS, but the GOP before midterms5) Establish solid public support for his leadership and candidacy  As a result, Ford’s rhetoric was dictated by his desire to heal the country and his party. Therefore, it is not surprising that his rhetorical style was sometimes contradictory.

4. Upon Taking the Oath of Office...

5. Address to the Nation: Pardon of Nixon

6. 1976: Ford v. Carter

7. First televised debate since 1960 & first debate between an incumbent and a challenger Bitzer & Rueter  Not much of a debate, characterized by:  Shallow argumentation  Defective reasoning and evidence  Speeches amounted to little more than their TV commercials • Candidates focused on characterizing opponents rather than themselves:  Ford = weak leader, unimaginative, caretaker, lacking in vision  Carter = vague on issues, inconsistent, “waffling,” untrustworthy

8. Paradox: Candidates were to answer argumentative questions, yet debate each other.  Often appeared as though the candidates were debating the panelists  Out of 103 speeches in debates, C & F stayed on subject 65% of the time; 41 speeches answered the question  Reasons answers were vague: political risk; respond to previous candidate’s charges; issue-building; format allowing multiple questions  While candidates did “debate,” they only engaged in “genuine debate”—debate relative to a specific issue—during half of the rounds.  C & F generally initiated debate  While propositions were addressed, they were not always argued  Proposition was usually unknown until the rejoinder speech was made  When panelists did initiate, it was often done in through a hostile “?”