1981: Gerald Ford becomes President, again...

[Liberalrocks]

1974: Richard Nixon resigns, Gerald Ford assumes office after not having been previously elected VP. The time line plays out the same with Ronald Reagan challenging and losing the 1976 Republican nomination to Gerald Ford who narrowly lost the general election to Jimmy Carter. 1980: Gerald Ford accepts Ronald Reagan’s initial offer to form a unity ticket (actually offered to him at the time). They go on to beat Jimmy Carter in the same 1980 landslide. 1981: Tragically Ronald Reagan succumbs to his wounds after being shot by John Hinckley. Gerald Ford assumes the presidency again.This time having been elected VP. How do things play out from here? How would Ford been perceived by the public? A two time accidental president, or one who took over during two very difficult moments in history?...

[NewYorkExpress]

Whoever the Democratic Nominee is in 1984 can bash Ford's head in over the Nixon pardon, assuming George H.W Bush or some other Republican doesn't do it first in the primaries.

Ford loses the general election, and he might lose in the primaries to Bush or Dole.

[Ferguson97]

Conspiracy theorists would run wild with this kind of thing.

I think he probably doesn't run in 1984, so the nomination might go to Bush or Dole.

Mondale probably still wins the nomination, and he might be able to beat Bush/Dole in this case, or at the very least avoid an embarrassing loss.

[John King wannabe]

Conspiracy theorists would run wild with this kind of thing.

I think he probably doesn't run in 1984, so the nomination might go to Bush or Dole.

Mondale probably still wins the nomination, and he might be able to beat Bush/Dole in this case, or at the very least avoid an embarrassing loss.

Conspiracy theories weren't that widespread in 1981, at the worst some questions would be raised at first and then eventually die out.

[Alben Barkley]

Whoever the Democratic Nominee is in 1984 can bash Ford's head in over the Nixon pardon, assuming George H.W Bush or some other Republican doesn't do it first in the primaries.

Ford loses the general election, and he might lose in the primaries to Bush or Dole.

This might be the most wildly off of all your takes yet.

Ford almost won in 1976 despite the Nixon pardon; by 1984 no one would care, especially after he already won on the 1980 ticket in a landslide and became president again under tragic circumstances, and if the economy’s even close to as booming as it was in the real world, he would be heavily favored. Especially against someone like Mondale.

Hell, I’m pretty sure by that point a consensus was already forming that the Nixon pardon was the right thing to do in hindsight.

But wait I just remembered, Ford wouldn’t be eligible to run again anyway after serving nearly two unelected terms. So this take is still wrong, but even if he could run, it would be wrong.

[darklordoftech]

Whoever Ford picks as his Vice President easily wins in 1984.

[brucejoel99]

Whoever the Democratic Nominee is in 1984 can bash Ford's head in over the Nixon pardon, assuming George H.W Bush or some other Republican doesn't do it first in the primaries.

Ford loses the general election, and he might lose in the primaries to Bush or Dole.

This might be the most wildly off of all your takes yet.

Ford almost won in 1976 despite the Nixon pardon; by 1984 no one would care, especially after he already won on the 1980 ticket in a landslide and became president again under tragic circumstances, and if the economy’s even close to as booming as it was in the real world, he would be heavily favored. Especially against someone like Mondale.

Hell, I’m pretty sure by that point a consensus was already forming that the Nixon pardon was the right thing to do in hindsight.

But wait I just remembered, Ford wouldn’t be eligible to run again anyway after serving nearly two unelected terms. So this take is still wrong, but even if he could run, it would be wrong.

That's not true, since Ford's first 2 terms as President in this scenario - Aug. 9th, 1974 - Jan. 20th, 1977 & then Mar. 30th, 1981 - Jan. 20th, 1985 - would've been acquired simply by virtue of succeeding to the presidency after having been the Vice President of multiple Presidents (i.e., Nixon & then Reagan) who couldn't complete the terms which they'd been elected to serve out. Per a plainly textualist reading of the 22nd Amendment's wording (i.e., "no person who has held the office of President... for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once,"), Ford would've still been eligible for election to an elected term in his own right given that, before 1984, he would've only ever held the presidency via terms to which other people (i.e., Nixon & then Reagan) had been elected President, thereby still qualifying him for a potential election to the office, albeit just one instead of 2. All of which is to say that if Reagan had actually picked Ford as his running mate in 1980 & then hadn't survived the assassination attempt at Hinckley's hands, Ford would've still been eligible for his 1st election to the presidency in his own right in 1984, in spite of the fact that it would've enabled him to serve an overall total of more than 10 years as President.