had adversaries
but could not name, or think of,
single enemy
Very much sounding like the legislator I had first met more than a decade earlier, Ford explained that he had “a good many adversaries” on Capitol Hill, but could not name, or think of, a single enemy.
From When the Center Held: Gerald Ford and the Rescue of the American Presidency by Donald Rumsfeld New York, NY, Free Press An Imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc., 2018.
In the forward, Mr. Rumsfeld writes, “This is that story, told by one who was privileged to have been there and who had the chance to see a friend rise to the occasion just when our nation needed him most.”
Mr. Rumsfeld quotes Mr. Ford in Ford’s Remarks upon being sworn in, “Purge our hearts of suspicion and of hate. … Our Constitution works. Our great Republic is a government of laws and not of men. … Truth is the glue that holds governments together.”
Mr. Rumsfeld then quotes New York Times Columnist, Anthony Lewis who wrote about Ford and his succession to the Office of President of the United States, “… in the person of Gerald Ford, the United States just may have proved itself once again to have the greatest of national assets, good luck.”
I have long felt the United States gets away with a lot of luck.
That starting lineup that invented the United States with the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
Mr. Washington going first.
Mr. Lincoln showing up out of nowhere in 1861.
FDR for the double whammy of the Depression and WW2.
Then the ink in the pen of luck starts to run dry.
Like most pens you can bang it down on a desk and scribble scribble until a little more ink comes out.
That seems to have been Mr. Ford.
Still everyone in America has a drawer full of old pens that may or may not write.
Holding out for that, one day.
No Haiku For You 