The Nation Remembers President Ford

The gray, overcast, rainy weather in Washington these last few days seemed appropriate. It felt the same way inside the U.S. Capitol as more than 30,000 Americans paid their last respects to the former President who died at the age of 93. It became especially emotional when Betty Ford, his wife of 58 years, approached his flag draped casket. Inside the Capitol, politicians from both side of the aisle came to pay their last respects. They included former President Bill Clinton and Senator Hillary Clinton, longtime Senator Ted Kennedy, and soon to be speaker of the house Nancy Pelosi. Then of course there was President Bush and the first lady, former President H.W. Bush and his wife, and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who served in the ford administration. But these last few days have really been about just ordinary Americans, young and old, who came here to remember a president who brought a nation together after Watergate and Vietnam. "He built character, he built integrity, he built honesty, and put the nation back on an even course," said mourner Jules Tepper. Another mourner said, "He was a calming factor. President Ford was in charge and the country was in good hands again." When President Ford's funeral gets underway later today, there will be four tributes. The speakers will include the President, former President George Herbert Walker Bush, Henry Kissenger, Ford's former secretary of state will speak and former NBC anchor Tom Brokaw. After the funeral, Ford's remains will be flown back to his home state of Michigan. He'll be buried tomorrow near his presidential museum in Grand Rapids.