Ford's main accomplishment was to return a sense of civility and normality to the country after Watergate. At the time, it was a huge accomplishment.
He was handed a terrible situation. The economy was heading into deep recession, as a result of faulty economic policies by the Johnson and Nixon administration as well as a huge increase in the price of oil. The South Vietnamese regime was tottering, and with it American foreign policy credibility. Detente with the Soviets was faltering, but there was no backing for a stronger policy. Then there was the terrible feeling engendered by Watergate, and the problem of how to handle Former President Nixon.
Ford pardoned Nixon and paid a huge price politically, but it effectively removed the Nixon issue, which was a huge help. He picked a liberal Republican Nelson Rockefeller as his VP, which enraged conservatives. Conservatives were also enraged by comments made by Ford's wife, Betty, about social issues such as abortion (she is strongly pro-abortion).
Ford got us through the Vietnam calamity, and did a reasonably good job of restoring American credibility in the wake of it. He maintained strained but working relations with the Soviets, got inflation under control, and presided over a modest economic expansion.
He was narrowly defeated by Jimmy Carter. If the economy had been going a little better, he probably would have won. But for the time, he had a very good presidency in my opinion, given what he had to work with.
This sums up my view perfectly. Ford tried to unify the Republican party at a time when the party was splitting along different lines. Reagan already realized that the best policy for us was to stand up to the Soviets, but I think he truly thought this was the wrong path in his heart. The world was not yet ready for Reagan. In the meantime, Ford did pretty well for what he could do. Also, people in 1976 thought Reagan was more radical than he really was. They thought that he wanted to privatize Social Security and in 1980 he said he wanted to end the Department of Education. And this was back when Social Security was in better shape than it is now. Fortunately, Reagan turned out to be one of the best presidents ever, so I'm glad that Ford lost in 1976, or Reagan might not have been president. But Ford did do very well with what he knew and thought at the time.
