DB AH Challenge: President Gerald Ford

With a POD not before the 1st of January 1972, have Gerald Ford (Republican Congressman, Speaker of the House for two years, Minority Leader for considerably longer) become President of the United States some time within the decade following the POD.
 
This is a tough one. Ford never had much ambition to be President as far as anyone knows. I suppose the best chance is elevation to the Presidency during the 2 years he was Speaker, but that would involve a most unlikely event -- the deaths of both President McGovern and Vice President Hart sometime between 1983 and 1985. That's unlikely as Hart is still alive and McGovern just passed last year.

OOC: In this TL, Agnew never resigns because his tax evasion is covered up and Nixon's involvement in Watergate isn't exposed until after he leaves office at the end of his full second term. Reagan wins in 1976 and takes the fall for a bad economy and Iran, turning the country sharply to the left. A poor economy and a McGovern proposal for universal health care leads to a 1994ish midterm where the GOP wins the House over a slow recovery and a seemingly radical UHC proposal. Once the economy picks up steam in 1983/84, Democrats get back the House and McGovern/Hart win in '84.
 
The only thing I can think of is if Reagan is persuaded not to pick Richard Schweiker as his running mate in 1976 (Schweiker apparently wasn't popular with much of the Republican party) and instead picks Ford as a compromise. The Republicans go on to win the Election and Ford becomes Vice President.
From here, you can have one of two options...

- Being Vice President gives Ford a high enough profile (and the desire) to run for President in 1984.
- One of the assassination attempts against Reagan succeeds and Ford is elevated to the Presidency. He then either narrowly wins his own term in 1980 or loses. Either way, he's still the 39th President, regardless of how long he's in the White House.
 
According to some sources, Nixon considered Ford as a running mate briefly in 1960 and 1968, or at least teased the idea. Maybe he decides to run with him? I don't see Nixon picking Ford unless he's dealing with some kind of congressional issues or something and needs someone from the old boys' club.

ooc: True OTL, as said in The Presidents' Club.
 
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