Alec Baldwin on Gerald Ford

A generous appreciation of the thirty-eighth President...and a critique of all, Democrats and Republicans, bitten by the Presidential Bug.

(MID-POST UPDATE: Charlie Lehardy points out that Baldwin may paint with too broad a stroke. Charlie's probably right. But I do think that our presidential politics has taken an onerous road ever since the 1988 campaign, when Lee Atwater advised George H.W. Bush. Atwater later publicly repented for his savagery. But legions of political functionaries, from both parties, have mimicked him ever since. Often, good, public spirited candidates acquiesce to such gutter tactics, especially in federal and statewide elections. None of us is perfect, of course. But in the intervening years, too few have emulated the two gentlemen who vied for the presidency in 1976, Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, who of course, became dear friends. At least at the presidential level in recent decades, ambition has seldom given way to decency or civility. It's a shame!)

Baldwin can be strident and over-the-top in some of his political comments. But several of his Huffington Post posts have been generous and fair. See Democrat Baldwin's take on campaign criticisms of Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger last fall.