When Gerald Ford became president minutes after Richard Nixon's resignation, Ford surprised many of us with how dramatically different he was in the role than his predecessor, starting with his very first Cabinet meeting.
During Nixon's administration, I had been a member of the Cabinet as counselor to the president, among other roles, and one of the Nixon-led Cabinet meetings still remains vivid in my mind. Fresh from his historic triumph in 1972, in which he'd won 49 out of 50 states, Nixon entered the Cabinet Room to rousing cheers and an extended standing ovation. But rather than enjoying the moment and expressing warm appreciation to his team, Nixon began a meandering yet colorful lecture with seemingly no clear point. He spoke of various British prime ministers and other men he admired, tossing in unusual comments, like, “Richard Nixon doesn't shoot blanks” and noting that Winston Churchill's father was a “brilliant man whose career was ruined by syphilis.” Then he mentioned “exhausted volcanoes,” a phrase he said British politician Benjamin Disraeli had used to describe public servants drained of their energy and inspiration.
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