By the Maui Curmudgeon (38th in a 43-part series)

How do the U.S. Presidents stack up? I thought I’d find out by reading biographies of all 43 presidents, in the order of their administrations. Here are briefly the pros and cons of my discoveries, the interesting bits, and how I’d rank him. For comparison, I give you the 1982 Murrary-Blessing ranking, a survey of hundreds of leading historians who ranked each president by number. This survey is the gold standard of presidential rankings and is most cited when this kind of thing needs bringing up in media.

GERALD R. FORD: 1973-1976 ~ 38th U.S. President

He served for fewer than three years and was the only president never elected to national office, but Gerald Ford nonetheless holds a pivotal role in American presidential politics. He spent more than 26 years in the House, rising in rank to the Minority Leader, which would have made him the Speaker of the House had his party ever won the majority during his tenure.

During this time, he was adept at balancing being a party loyalist with being honest. He engaged in several important duties, including being a member of the Warren Commission investigating JFK’s assassination (some believe Ford was FBI Head Edgar Hoover’s spy on the commission). He never wavered publicly from the commission findings that Oswald was a lone assassin.

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