The easiest POD is simply that Ford doesn't make the "Poland" mistake and thus his rise in the polls is slightly sharper than OTL (it's generally considered that an election a couple days later would have seen Ford become President) and so he wins.
That gives us the minimal butterflies needed to see Ford elected.
As for Ford being President? Obviously the Presidency will run smoother but I can't see him doing wildly better at things than Carter.
Iran probably goes down similarly, although he might mount a less foolish and more robust rescue operation.
He might bring in wage and price controls for a time, with the oil shocks, but I can certainly see the old school Republican "balance the budget" attitude while the Democrats push for a stimulus package.
What matters if the future outcome of the Republican Party. After Nixon the Republican Party came just as unglued as the Democratic Party post-1968. IOTL the supply-siders & neoconservatives took over, convinced Reagan to go along with (he was more libertarian and more conservative than the average Republican, but he wasn't a believer in supply-side economics until the late '70s—more of a very small balanced budget government) and so.
ITTL Ford restores the establishment Republican Party—albeit in a more conservative (but still fairly normal) fashion. Reagan himself is probably prevented from gaining the Presidency as Democrats should surely have the edge in 1980.
In the ATL that could mean a Republican Party that sticks with balanced budgets over huge tax cuts; to be fair Ford being re-elected may do nothing but slow that process a little.
Certainly some more stuff I'm forgetting.
Not so much. US steel mills were burdened with too many liabilities in the form of pensions and benefits to compete, even if there was a higher tariff on foreign steel. There's a case study about a US steel mill that (essentially) rebooted in 1980 or so—it was able to compete, but it certainly wasn't as generous to the workers as the older steel mills.
Furthermore free trade is always beneficial to a country's economy except under special cases (notably, tariff walls to build industry Japan style). That's simply basic economics.
The problem comes in when you consider real wages, which haven't budged in the US in thirty years. The guy working in the '70s could still support family + car paid off in three years + house w/25 year or less reasonable mortgage + eating better (more imported food / higher quality meat)—the same guy today couldn't possibly meet that without his wife helping, and even then he doesn't hit the same standard.
Ford being elected President is unlikely either to change the spread of free trade, or alter in a good way the real wage problem.
Institutional Memory:
Ford defeats Carter in 1976
Ford Re-elected: No Jimmy Carter
1976 Ford Wins with Baker as VP
Ford Wins
President Ford defeats Jimmy Carter, Ford wins the 1976 election
AH Challenge: Ford defeats Carter