Gerald Ford
In 1976, Boehner again voted for a Republican for president: Gerald Ford. They met years later, after Ford had left the White House. In 1992, House Republican leader Bob Michel invited Boehner to play in the Jerry Ford Invitational golf tournament. They instantly hit it off.
Boehner gained respect for Ford’s character, if not for his prowess in golf. “He loved the sport, mostly as a reason to hang around with his friends and have a good time, but he was not a natural golfer,” Boehner said.
When they were playing a round in California in 1999, on a par 5 hole, Ford hit his fourth shot into a water hazard. And his fifth shot. And his sixth shot. Then the 86-year-old former president began to jump up and down, screaming an expletive that can’t be printed here.
By then, they had became friends. “He was a warm, easygoing guy – from the Midwest, like me, and a man of the House, like I was, too,” Boehner said. Ford had been House Republican leader when he replaced the disgraced Spiro Agnew as vice president. He succeeded to the presidency when Nixon resigned.
“He hadn’t looked for advancement like that, he was just doing his job – and we needed him to help bring much needed stability to the country after all the Watergate mess,” Boehner said. He called Ford “the most decent president I’ve ever met.”
But the job Ford really wanted was the one Boehner eventually got.
“It was pretty clear to me that Ford felt his jump to the Executive Branch was a wrong turn,” Boehner said. Ford told him, “a bit sadly,” that all he ever wanted to be was speaker.