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beckyromero It should have cost Ford the election. I was then of voting age and believed then, and now, that it was the wrong decision for the wrong reasons. The decision was widely condemned at the time, and it cost the nation a chance to pursue justice through a trial (not impeachment). A Gallup poll in September 1974 showed that a 53% majority of Americans supported Ford not granting Nixon a pardon. Only 38% supported a pardon if Nixon was tried and convicted. During the campaign two years later, 55% still felt that a pardon was the wrong move, and only 35% thought it was the right thing to do. This squares with my recollections at the time.
Nixon never believed the rest of his life that he had done anything wrong. We should have settled things once and for all then. It has only been relatively recently that people have started to say it was the right and a courageous decision. I respect your opinion, but mine reflects the national opinion at the time and has remained unchanged for the past 48 years based on the situation that existed at the time. Acceptance of presidential criminality may have been normalized to some extent during the Reagan Administration and contributed to the change in attitude.