By using Mary Anne's subject line I'm incorporating a lot of what she said by reference.

So what if people made fun of Gerry Ford's apparent clumsiness (when in reality he's said to have been an above-average athlete)? So what if we chuckled at his seeming dullness (which, as MA notes, was a spin on steadiness and reliability)? All of it was in the context of relief to finally be done with Richard Nixon, and I don't think it's going out on a limb to say that our attitude toward Fod had a noticeably affectionate element to it. It was a relief to have a President we could, in effect, share a joke with, after the grim implacable hostility and pathological aloofness of Richard Nixon.

Tell me what President since, and for many years prior to Ford, received less serious criticism? Has any other President provoked less controversy and rubbed fewer people the wrong way?

You're claiming that your liberal media conspiracy savaged Gerald Ford the same way you claim it savages every Republican; and is only now hypocritically praising him. Prove it. And I don't mean the exceptional crackpot rant. Show me the "mainstream media" treating Gerry Ford badly on a consistent basis.

I know you can't. I think you just suffered the knee-jerk impulse to lash out, once again, and seized upon Ford's passing as a pretext. It isn't working. You miscalculated, Tom. It happens. Gerry Ford miscalculated the shot when he beaned a fellow golfer, and it wasn't the end of the world for him. Relax.