"We're number one!" crows the sports fan, his outsized styrofoam finger flapping. Everybody, the song goes, loves a winner. But what about number two? Where's his fan? Who cheers for the second banana?
Does anybody make a giant styrofoam hand with two fingers? And if they did, would it look like something for a peace rally? That would be fitting. For while number one is the white-hot hero of the drama, number two is peace itself. Winning and losing don't matter so much to him. He's here to listen, to work things out if he can. And if he can't, that's okay too -- "boys will be boys."
Gerald Ford was, in some ways, the ultimate (penultimate?) number two. In fact, he was Nixon's number two number two, following Spiro Agnew, who resigned in 1973 due to a bribery scandal and subsequent tax evasion and money laundering convictions. Ford was the first vice president installed under the 25th Amendment, which enables the president to nominate a VP successor.
As vice president, Ford didn't get much attention; the Watergate investigation was in full swing. But once Nixon resigned, Ford stepped up as president and did what a proactive number two is supposed to do -- make his (in this case, former) boss look as good as possible. He pardoned Nixon, sparing the country a long, potentially painful trial, and providing closure and some healing. He brought a bit of peace. (Is it a coincidence the Vietnam War finally ended on his watch?) The act probably cost Ford the 1976 election. Voters decided it was now time for change (sound familiar?), and Gerald Ford never returned to elected office.
Listen to the other person once in a while.
Stop to smell the roses.
Don't aspire so much.
Take one for the team.
