Gerald Ford: "They Will See Something Is Being Done"

(5 of 5)

Q. Why does the recent Harris poll find 86% of the people give a negative response on your ability to deal with the economic problems?

A. I think the public generally doesn't realize the change that took place that I described earlier in the economic conditions—the loss of public confidence with a substantially increased unemployment.

During the economic summits last fall, we had a whole range of economists—not one of them forecast, as I recall, the precipitous drop in auto sales and the increase in unemployment.

Q. The public won't hold it against the experts for having been wrong?

A. No, they'll just hold it against me.

It is a natural tendency of Americans to say, "The President should have stopped all of this." Well, I think all of us recognize that a President can't turn a switch and everything changes.

Now, it is my judgment that with the plan and program we are going to submit next week, that there will be a realization we have a plan. It will give me an opportunity to provide leadership and hopefully get a response from the Congress and the American people. If that takes place, I believe there will be a change in the polls. That will not be overnight, as they have to have more than a plan, but at least they will see that something is being done.

Q. What is your greatest frustration in leadership terms?

A. The inability to be able to say this has to be done and expect it to accomplish overnight success. That isn't the way it works, either in foreign policy or domestic policy. It is a slow, constructive, hard-working process.

You have to get the cooperation in foreign policy of your allies on the one hand and your adversaries on the other, and those things don't happen overnight. In the domestic scene there are a multitude of factors—pure economics plus public confidence. Those things don't change overnight just because the President says so.

Q. On one occasion you spoke of your concern of the self-destructive impulse that you feared might be at work in American society. What do you think can be done about it?

A. Well, as I look back, certainly there was this self-destruct attitude toward Mr. Johnson and it carried on into Mr. Nixon. I am not saying it is aimed at me, but I think there is a tendency as we look over the recent history that Presidents become very visible and very live targets. Now that is fine and it doesn't hurt individuals, but it certainly could hurt the presidency.

What can be done about it? I wish I had the answer, and I don't want to say the press is at fault or the press can overnight change it. I am not sure that that is true.

Q. Could you conceive of appointing Mr. Nixon to any overseas post or any kind of a post? His daughter brought that up again yesterday.

A. Frankly, I hadn't thought of it.