They didn’t suppose a lot of one another at first. They crisscrossed the nation for months, warning voters that the opposite one shouldn’t be trusted with energy. Their marketing campaign was as bitter as any of the period and resulted in one of many closest elections in trendy occasions.
After which, towards all odds, towards all political logic, Jimmy Carter and Gerald R. Ford truly turned pals.
Not pals within the Washington sense, the place somebody talks on the ground of Congress about “my friend from the state of Georgia” earlier than stabbing them within the again. Actual pals. Pals who commiserate on the cellphone over shared struggles. Pals whose wives and youngsters turn into shut. Pals who see a like-minded soul. Pals who communicate at one another’s funerals.
The unlikely bond between Mr. Carter and Mr. Ford is a uncommon story within the historical past of the American presidency and all of the extra unimaginable in immediately’s polarized atmosphere, nevertheless it transcended politics and partisanship. The 2 males who clashed within the 1976 election finally turned so tight that they made a pact that when one in every of them died, the opposite would give a eulogy. Mr. Carter did that for Mr. Ford in 2007. Now, in a manner, Mr. Ford will return the favor on Thursday.
Whereas he didn’t survive to honor his successor in particular person, Mr. Ford left behind a written eulogy earlier than he died and it is going to be learn at Mr. Carter’s service at Washington Nationwide Cathedral by Steven Ford, the previous president’s third son. Walter F. Mondale, who was Mr. Carter’s vice chairman, likewise left behind a eulogy earlier than his personal dying to be learn by his son Ted Mondale.
