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7343876
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Remarks of the President to the Michigan Broadcaster's Association, the Madison Hotel [Ford Speech or Statement]
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7343876
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Remarks of the President to the Michigan Broadcaster's Association, the Madison Hotel [Ford Speech or Statement]
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White House Press Releases (Ford Administration)
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1976-05-06
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1976
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Digitized from Box 25 of the White House Press Releases at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MAY 6, 1976
OFFICE OF THE WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY
THE WHITE HOUSE
uah
REMARKS OF THE PRESIDENT
TO THE
MICHIGAN BROADCASTER'S ASSOCIATION
THE MADISON HOTEL
7:27 P.M. EDT
Ken MacDonald and Tony Gaston and all of the
members of the Michigan Broadcaster's Association and
guests:
It is first a great privilege and pleasure to be
able to core back to one of these meetings that I have
attended a good many times -- I think every time since
the group has.met here -- but I also wish to thank all of
you on behalf of Betty and myself for the beautiful gift
that will be deeply cherished by both of us as we move ahead,
and I can assure you that the mere fact that you have
selected me for this first award on behalf of the Michigan
Broadcaster's Association is a -- I just won't forget it,
and I thank you very, very much.
You know, talking to Ken and talking to Tony
brought back some memories and those memories ao back to
about 1945, 1946 and 1947. I had just come back from
rilitary service, and I was practicing law, and I wanted
some activities involving athletics. So, I did. some color
broadcasts or athletic broadcasts in a very minor way --
probably not very competently (Laughter) -- for some of
the football gares, and Ken did it down there at WPAG and
Tony, at that time, did it at WJEF, so you know the three
of us had a beginning and now we are Presidents. (Laughter)
I am sorry Betty is not here, because I am sure
she would have been able to appreciate the beautiful gift
that has been given, but Betty is out in California. Ever
since I saw that Detroit News poll which showed she got 70
percent and I got 50 percent, (Laughter) I decided I
ought to ask her to go around the country so that she could
get my votes up to her polls.
But Eetty and I will express to all of you, as I
have, our appreciation for this very thoughtful gift and
this very fine award.
MORE
Page 2
I was reminiscing just before coming over here
about some of the things that have happened, transpired, in
the intervals between one visit that you all rade to
Washington and the next one, and they come on a yearly
basis. My memory is not that good that I can go back 20
some years ago and recapitulate or refresh my memory, but
there are two years that certainly are fresh in my memory.
Two years ago I had just been made Vice President
or had been Vice President for a relatively short period of
time when I joined you on an occasion like this. Of
course, in the interval between that meeting and this
meeting that we had last year, there had been a very
difficult time, difficult for me, extremely difficult for
the country as a whole, but it did bring about, I believe,
in that period of time a restoration of confidence, openness,
candor and faith in the White House.
We tried to do it then, as we had tried to do it
for 25 years in the Congress, of being frank and candid,
forthright, not always agreeing with everybody but everybody
had their day in court and everyone felt when they left
that their point of view had been expressed, and I would do
my very best to maintain an objective point of view.
So, that first 12 months between Vice President
and President was a touch time, but I believe we came
through that with progress, with headway. Then last year,
you know, we met over at Tayloe House. The country was in
pretty bad shape. If you recollect, asI have on occasion,
we were at the depths of a recession, the worst recession
in 40 years in this country.
We had many serious problers. The rate of
inflation was still too high. Unemployment in your own
State of Michigan had plummeted. The automobile industry
was in serious condition. There was creat despair in many
parts of the country, and Michigan was more heavily hit
than most States.
But, it is nice to be here with all of you this
year, where I keep reading about how things have changed
in Michigan. The automobile industry is having one of its
top years, either third or fourth in the history of the
industry, with every week or every reporting time the
production schedules of the automobile industry going up,
with a resurgence of public confidence, so it is a much
better atmosphere in which I am your guest tonight than
it was a year ago.
Let me say without any hesitation or qualification,
as good as we think it is, it is not good enouch. When you
come down here a year from now, I expect to be able to
invite you to the White House and we can have the 21st or
22nd reunion in the East Poor or the Fed Room or the Blue
Poom or the State Dining Foom, but I think it would be a
great place to have a wonderful reunion and an opportunity
for us to let you make the presentation to your second
honoree, whom I will be glad tohonor with best wishes from
the President of the United States for the next four years.
Thank you.
END
(AT 7:35 P.M. EDT)