One More Note On The Ford Hagiographers [View All]

I know this has already been hashed around, but i have an observation from the Washington Journal this morning.

More than one caller was worship at Ford's altar because he "did the right thing" instead of worrying about his poll numbers. One person said that Ford KNEW his poll numbers would take a beating before he pardoned Nixon, but didn't worry about public opinion.

I thought of two things when i heard this for the third time:

1) I don't understand the lionizing of elected officials who do what THEY think is right without regard to the people's opinion. Why is that a good thing? Isn't this a gov't of the people? (At least in theory.)

2) In most lines of work, doing what nearly everyone else thought was bad idea is CALLED A MISTAKE! It's not a sign of courage! It's not a sign of conviction! In the real world, we call it STUPIDITY!

Just because someone is willing to be wrong and do the wrong thing, even though they think it's ok, is nothing admirable. Jeez, that excuse could be used by every criminal in every jail. "I robbed that bank, knowing there might be consequences, but i stood by my beliefs and robbed it anyway." Who admires that?

Well, i heard at least 3 people on the Journal this morning who might!
The Professor