1976 Carter VS. Ford

"Children/Achievements"

Transcript

Museum of the Moving Image
The Living Room Candidate
"Children/Accomplishment," Ford, 1976

GIRL #1: Mr. President, I'd like to know, what has your greatest accomplishment been since you've been in office?

FORD: In the broadest sense, I would say the healing of America. When I became president, there were many, many people who didn't like one another, who were confronting one another. It was a very difficult time. We had difficulties on the university campuses; there was a bad mood in the country. Today, everybody has a different attitude, they're all feeling good about one another, whether they agree with them or not. And that healing process has been, I think, one of the big accomplishments of this administration. If you have people working together and feeling good about one another, then you can work on the other problem.

MEN AND WOMEN (singing):
And I'm feeling good about America,
It's some great place to be.

MALE NARRATOR (over song): A kind and decent man, who's made us proud again. President Ford.

MEN AND WOMEN (singing)
I'm feeling good about America,
I'm feeling good about me!

Credits

"Children/Achievements," President Ford Committee, 1976

Maker: Bailey/Deardourff

Video courtesy of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.

From Museum of the Moving Image, The Living Room Candidate: Presidential Campaign Commercials 1952-2012.
www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/1976/childrenachievements (accessed June 2, 2025).

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1976 Carter Ford Results

On August 9, 1974, after a Senate investigation revealed his direct involvement in the cover-up of the Watergate break-in, Richard Nixon became the first president in American history to resign from office. Nixon was succeeded by Gerald Ford, who had been appointed vice president after a bribery scandal forced Spiro Agnew’s resignation in October 1973. These scandals and the televised Watergate hearings, which resulted in the conviction and imprisonment of 25 Nixon administration officials, shattered the public's trust in the government. In a 1974 poll, 43 percent of respondents said that they had "hardly any" faith in the executive branch. As a result, the 1976 election was dominated by issues of integrity and character. Hoping to put the Watergate affair to rest, President Ford unconditionally pardoned Nixon in September 1974, but the move hurt Ford’s political standing. Ford won the Republican nomination only after fighting off a strong challenge from Ronald Reagan.

The Democrats nominated Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter, a former naval officer and peanut farmer. Carter, who promised, "I will never tell a lie to the American people," ran a brilliant campaign as an outsider, offering a fresh change from Washington politics as usual.

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