I didn't articulate my thoughts quite exactly but that's basically what I meant. Ford and his advisors may have concluded that prosecutions would have overshadowed his entire presidency and would definitely have cost him the election (which it ended up doing anyway), and he would have to weigh in on it every single day, because as you say it would have been all anyone would have wanted to talk about. Instead, Ford thought it better to rip off the band-aid, pardon Nixon, take the immediate blowback, and get it over with so he could move on to some semblance of a normal presidency, which, of course, could never be because it was still overshadowed by Tricky ****—as well it should have been.