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Pres Ford as Klutz
The following 2 comments and questions have been sent in. They are listed according to date.
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When did Ford hit the lady in the head?
Question
November 19, 2006
where can I get more information about president ford hitting the lady with the golf ball? a newspaper article/story of the incident, for instance? or a picture of the actual golf ball? did it happen at a master's pro-am/celebrity event? what year? where? etc.
thanks,
david turner
Grand Rapids, MI
david - USA
12433
Answer
There are number of references of President Ford hitting a lady with a golf ball, but unfortunately none of them give any specific dates. I'm sorry I can't help you here. If you find out, let me know.
Was on Ford's staff
Question
July 10, 2005
I was on Jerry Ford's full-time staff as his legislative assistant from 1961 to 1967. I frequently, before he became House Minority Leader, drove to his modest home to drop off or pick up items, or drive Betty Ford to the office when they were going out for the evening and wanted to come home in the same car.
I saw Ford one day right after he got out his backyard swimming pool. He was in excellent muscular tone and looked very athletic. For six years I saw him manuver in tight places in his small office at 351 OHOB that he had before we moved over to the Minority Leader's office in the Capitol. He never, while I saw him, moved ungracefully. He had a good sense of humor and enjoyed a good laugh with his small staff in his office. He was able to move very quickly, faster sometimes than I could keep up with him, and I was right out of college.
Betty talked with him one time about having speech training and he told her that it would be like trying to change is golf swing. Every non-professional golfer occasionally hits a hook or slice into the gallery. President Lyndon Johnson said Ford could not walk and chew gum at the same time. That remark, coming from a man who liked to pull up his dogs' heads by their ears, was completely untrue and not called for.
When asked if he would have done something like President Clinton had done, Ford simply said that he had standards that would be prevented him from doing what Clinton had done. That modest remark was hardly picked up by the press. Our so-called "working" press enjoys provoking controvery and engaging in speculation more than they welcome reporting a balanced coverage of the facts.
Jim - USA
7513
Answer
Thanks for sharing your experiences. President Ford certainly got a bum rap in the press. I have another article on how Time Magazine criticized President Nixon for swearing in the White House, while a few years previous they presented President Kennedy's swearing in a positive light.
President Ford was an admirable man who did not get the credit deserved.
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