Richard Nixon appointed Ford to be his vice president in 1973, however, by 1974 it became clear to Nixon that if he did not resign he would be removed from office by the U.S. Congress over his role in the Watergate cover-up. On August 9, 1974, Richard Nixon resigned from the office of the presidency and that is how Gerald Ford became president. Because of these circumstances, he is the only person to ever become president without being elected as either president or vice president. However, in his time as president, he tried to bring order to the country and stabilize the economy as much as possible. To ensure the country could start healing as soon as possible after the Watergate scandal, Ford pardoned Nixon. While this is accepted as the best decision now, at the time it made him very unpopular. He was also unpopular because he was seen as having a poor understanding of foreign policy and the Middle East. He was unable to effectively reduce inflation within his short 2.5 years as president.These factors made it easy for Jimmy Carter to argue that he was a better choice than Ford. For all the Americans who wanted a break from the conservative approach to politics, he was the only choice and was a Washington outsider who represented everything Ford did not. during the presidential campaign of 1976.