Republican · 1974–1977
Gerald Ford
A pardon, a continuation, and a modest presidency after the fall.
Gerald Ford was president 1974–1977. The party color on the chart is Republican. Early presidents are not forced into today’s party names. The placement note is: A pardon, a continuation, and a modest presidency after the fall.
The dot is economics +22 and authority +12. That is right of center on economics. The other axis sits near the middle. Color and place are allowed to disagree. Theodore Roosevelt sits left of Grover Cleveland on economics.
What was said, and what the administration did, are filed separately. Said: Our long national nightmare is over. No deal on a pardon was the claim. Done: He pardoned Nixon a month in. The rest was a caretaker term. Where those two sentences pull apart, the dot follows the governing record, not the slogan.
The nearest other presidents on these two numbers are Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953–1961, +18 / +14) and Chester A. Arthur (1881–1885, +16 / +10). A small distance can join people who would have disliked each other. The chart is a compression, not a claim that they were alike.
Presidents are not placed with the Voteview roll-call score used for the current Congress. Two axes cannot carry a war, a court, a tariff, and a civil-rights record as separate facts.