Bob Woodward of Woodward and Bernstein Fame

One of the presenters at yesterday's Premier meeting was Bob Woodward of the Washington Post.  He had quite a few great stories about Washington DC and with whom he has interacted with there.  Hillary Rodham Clinton is certainly not a favorite of Bob's.  He said that her motto is fake it until you make it and she has a lot of experience faking it.  He wasn't a fan of Harry Reid, Barack Obama or George W. Bush.  Woodward said that Harry Reid is pretty much an empty suit; President Obama makes no human connection with anyone and former President Bush wasn't the sharpest tool.  Asked who he admired the most as a great leader and his answer came as quite a surprise.  His answer was Gerald Ford.  Remember that former President Ford pardoned Richard Nixon and at the time everyone thought that it was corruption at its finest.  Twenty five years later, Bob Woodward sat down with Gerald Ford and asked the question as to why the pardon was granted.  He said that a deal was requested by Nixon's chief of staff.  Ford declined the deal but pardoned Nixon anyway,  The reason for the pardon was it was what the county needed. Ford risked being re-elected as President and of course he lost the election to Carter.  It took great courage for Ford to pardon Nixon and twenty five years later was awarded the Kennedy Profiles in Courage award for his action twenty five years earlier.  Everyone thought that a deal had been cut and here that was never the case.  It was done to protect a nation.