AP Photo/Alex Brandon I would first of all like to apologize. This is definitely another “Where are we going from here?” column, and while I wish we could step away from that and talk about actual political events as they happen, I feel as though we are trapped in the recent past. On September 8, 1974, Gerald Ford granted Richard Nixon a full pardon following the events of the Watergate scandal and subsequent resignation. Most historians tend to agree that this was one of the pivotal events that led to Ford losing his re-election bid to Jimmy Carter, but evidence suggests Ford pardoned Nixon not out of some sense of party loyalty or as part of some previously-struck deal that allowed Ford to ascend to the presidency in the first place, but because he felt it was time for America to move on from that moment.