1. In the end, probably so. My understanding is that nothing in the Constitution counters that usage of the Presidential pardon power. This is purely a layman's PoV, so I could be wrong.
2. Oh, I assume it would utterly shred Ford and the Republicans for at least an election cycle. That would be the scandalous topper to Watergate, an act so flagrantly crooked that it may well get a Constitutional amendment to change how Presidential pardons work.
That being said, I personally feel Ford pardoning Nixon was the right thing to do with the benefit of hindsight. Ford could at least do it and have a veneer of legitimacy to it, that he was working in the nation's best interests to heal. Nixon pardoning Nixon can't have that, won't have that and will be a gaping political wound.