Later he wrote, “I was under no illusions as to what the reaction to her remarks would be …. Conservatives grumbled, their grumbles swelled to a roar.” But it was not Ford’s way to silence his wife. “I had admired her candor from the moment we met and had always encouraged her to speak her mind,” he wrote. “We had few disagreements, but when we differed, we respected the other’s opinion.” This level of tolerance was something new in presidential history. Was the country ready for it? The extremely conservative New Hampshire daily, the Manchester Union Leader, said no.
