Historical Parallels

Over the weekend, George Will compared Obama's apparent decision not to go after Bush to Ford's pardon of Nixon. For once, I completely agree with the man, it's exactly like pardoning Nixon.

"With regard to investigating the Bush administration, he's made the decision that Gerald Ford made with regard to pardoning Richard Nixon, which is your presidency can be swallowed up by the past arguments or you can go forward. That's very sensible," Will said.

History was somewhat kinder to Ford than it will be to Obama should Bush not suffer any consequences, however...and even then Ford was rewarded with a brutal economy and only 29 months in the Oval Office.

It was often said that Ford did the right thing for the country in 1974, but all he really did was leave the door open a generation later. If Ford had not pardoned Nixon and the whole stinking mess had gone to jail, that would have ended the career of one Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and certainly would have been the end of Nixon's White House Chief of Staff -- a fellow by the name of Dick Cheney.