It’s traditional at this time of year for writers to pass judgment on such matters as performer of the year, politician of the year, businessman/woman of the year, events of the year, etc.

Newspapers and magazines document the events that have occupied their pages for the last twelve months. Precocious columnists make predictions about the next twelve months and the events or people who will make news. Some offer New Year’s resolutions in the hope they will titillate readers.

This week, I was tempted to focus on climate change and the long-term forecasting of weather trends but former U.S. President Gerald Ford died on Tuesday. Some of you will remember that he was President from 1974 to 1977. He did not run for President.

He inherited the presidency as a result of two circumstances:

• (i) Vice President Spiro Agnew was forced to resign over charges of tax evasion. President Richard Nixon appointed Ford as Agnew’s replacement
• (ii) Nixon resigned when faced with almost certain impeachment in respect to the Watergate affair. Vice President Ford succeeded Nixon.

The passing of a (former) U.S. president causes one to reminisce. I can remember as a kid hearing my parents talk about Roosevelt and Truman and Eisenhower.

My interest in the U.S. presidency surfaced in 1960, when John F. Kennedy ran as the first Catholic presidential candidate in the history of the United States. He didn’t hide his religion; he confronted it and voters responded positively.

His 1963 assassination was devastating. I was home sick with the flu at the time and watched television, non-stop for at least three days. I watched the replays of his assassination. I watched the arrest of Lee Harvey Oswald. I watched the assassination of Oswald by Jack Ruby. I watched Jackie Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson travel from Dallas to Washington.

Lyndon Johnson succeeded Kennedy and implemented some of Kennedy’s programs. The Vietnam War caused him to not re-offer for the presidency. He was succeeded by Richard Nixon who won presidential elections in 1968 and 1972.

The Watergate affair surfaced just prior to the 72 election. There was a break-in at the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate Hotel in Washington. Subsequent denials, cover-ups and audio-tape-wipes led to impeachment proceedings and Nixon’s resignation.

I’ll never forget hearing the news of his resignation. It was the summer of 1973. I was at a cottage on St. Margaret’s Bay in Nova Scotia and received the information in a telephone booth.

The next president was Gerald Ford. Ford was a decent man. He was good to Canada. Indeed, he was instrumental in gaining a seat for Canada in the G-7, an elite group of global economies that included the United States, England, France, Germany, Japan and Italy and later Russia.

Ford lost his first and only presidential election to Jimmy Carter, former Governor of Georgia. Some blame Ford’s loss on the fact he pardoned Nixon for his Watergate crimes. My guess is that the American people were determined to replace Republicans because they were fed up with Nixon’s shenanigans. Ford never had a chance.

Carter was somewhat of an enigma. He was an outsider, a peanut farmer. He was also a man of principle. As President, he enacted strong environmental legislation. He negotiated the Camp David Accords and following Canada, established diplomatic relations with China. The Iranian hostage crisis dominated the last year of his term. A failed rescue attempt led to the resignation of his Secretary of State Cyrus Vance.

Jimmy Carter was defeated by Reagan in 1980. By coincidence, the Iran hostages were released on Carter's last day as President, just five minutes after Ronald Reagan was sworn into office.

It’s been suggested by some that George H.W. Bush, the President’s father negotiated a deal with the Iranians during Carter’s tenure but kept it secret until Reagan was sworn in, part of a deal to secure the hostage release.

Ronald Reagan was a former Governor of California; the oldest man (69) ever elected President of the United States. Before entering politics, he was a successful movie actor, television pitch-man for General Electric, a staunch conservative and advocate of free markets. He became a soul-mate of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

George H.W. Bush was Reagan’s Vice President. He was elected President in 1988. In 1990, Iraq led by Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, its oil-rich neighbor to the south.

A U.S. military coalition, under cover of Desert Storm (the Gulf War) was intended to remove Iraqi forces from Kuwait and ensure that Iraq did not invade Saudi Arabia. When these objectives were achieved, Bush ordered cessation of combat operations and allowed Hussein to stay in power. He explained that it would have "incurred incalculable human and political costs”. Bush Senior was defeated by Bill Clinton in 1992.

Clinton's presidency oversaw the longest period of economic growth in America's history. In 1998, he signed the Kyoto Accord, although it was never ratified. He signed the North American Free Trade Agreement. It was ratified by the U.S. Congress. He was unsuccessful in his attempt at universal health care reform and his presidency was tarnished by an alleged sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky.

Today, he’s a superstar speechmaker/fund-raiser.

A recent book by Bob Woodward, Washington Post reporter of Watergate fame, makes implicit, in descriptions of a relationship between the Bush family and Prince Bandar bin Sultan (longtime Saudi Arabian Ambassador to the United States) that Bush Junior’s reason for running for president in 2000 was to finish what his father could not - eliminate Saddam Hussein.

He may soon achieve his goal but at what cost to humanity? My hope for 2007 is that the American people will find a way to deal with this caricature.

Happy New Year to all and to all a good new year!

W.E. (Bill) Belliveau is a Shediac resident and Moncton business consultant. He can be contacted at bill.bellstrategic@nb.aibn.com Atlantic Insight is a published Blog inventory of opinion articles published weekly in New Brunswick's print media as written by W.E. (Bill) Belliveau, who is a resident of Shediac, New Brunswick, and small business owner, operating his Moncton-based marketing consultancy, Bell Strategic. He can be reached by e-mail at bill.bellstrategic@nb.aibn.com