The Nation: The Ridicule Problem

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Betty Ford recalls that when Jerry called at her home for their first date, he knocked over a vase filled with fresh roses. Though Ford is an excellent skier and swimmer, he has a weak knee from an old football injury, and that could cause some of his pratfalls. Moreover, the President could conceivably begin to win sympathy for his inadvertent clumsiness, especially if the jokes grow too cruel, as they are on the verge of doing. Nonetheless, the ridicule factor is fast becoming yet another worry for Ford's strategists. Jim Squires, Washington bureau chief for the Chicago Tribune, makes the point that Ford is in trouble because his physical and verbal blunders coincide with "a series of political and policy blunders that leave no doubt they're all being pulled off by the same guy." Frets an influential Republican politician on the fast-circulating Ford jokes: "I think they are hurting him. No one wants an image as a buffoon, least of all a President."