Ford Punts On Campaign Kick-off
Ford Punts On Campaign Kick-off
By Maryanne George and Joe Davis
President Gerald Ford, the man who pardoned Nixon and promised not to run for election in 1976, came "home" to the University of Michigan last week to launch his campaign.
Declaring that his administration has restored "trust in the White House," Ford was met with some applause and numerous boos from the crowd of 14,000 students and carefully placed groups of outstate Young Republicans who had been warmed up by a rendition of the U of M fight song.
On the domestic scene, Ford's speech emphasized jobs, housing, education, crime and health care as his major areas of concern.
Citing a goal of two-and-one-half-million new jobs every year, with emphasis on youthful minorities, the candidate of Big Business said that these jobs should be "permanent jobs with a future, generated by the demands of a healthy economy, not demeaning dead-end jobs paid for out of the Federal Treasury," a stumbling jab at the Democrats' Humphrey Hawkins Job Bill supported by Ford's opponent Jimmy Carter.
Ford called for loans and scholarships to subsidize trade and business schools.
Turning to foreign policy, Ford's support of the Kissinger "mission of peace" in South Africa was met with boos, while his continued support of the People's Republic of China drew applause.
Ford noticeably side-stepped the abortion issue as a crowd of approximately 125 people from local pro-choice groups demonstrated outside the arena.
Just as Ford launched an attack on Carter's "trust me" approach, an explosion that sounded like a gunshot rang through the arena. Ford did not fall, the Secret Service ran to investigate and the moment of paranoia passed.
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