Reagan's Revolution (52 page)

Holding on to delegates was but one problem facing both candidates. The GOP faced an even greater problem in holding onto what was left of their voters. Carter’s anti-Washington themes were striking a chord with conservatives, especially in the South.

Additionally, the Ford camp revived a new strategy for stalling Reagan’s drive for the nomination. Although Ford had wavered over the previous six months over whether or not he considered Reagan to be qualified for Vice President, his staff was now leaking that Reagan was, in fact, under consideration.
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The obvious goal was to undermine Reagan with the remaining delegates, as Ford’s team reasoned the conservatives would settle for a Ford-Reagan ticket.
New York Times
columnist James “Scotty” Reston took his usual shot at Reagan writing, “In fact, the Vice Presidency, if it weren’t for the possibility of its leading to the Presidency, is almost perfect for Ronald Reagan: decorative, theatrical and not too much work.”
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Several days earlier, Reagan had asserted to the Mississippi delegation that there was “no way” he would accept the number two slot with Ford, but the speculation continued to dog him right up until the convention in Kansas City.
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On the eve of the nation’s bicentennial, a minor scandal erupted in the nation’s capital when Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein reported in the
Washington Post
that Senator Clifford P. Hansen of Wyoming had attempted to trade the votes of seven delegates from his state for an agreement from the Ford White House to sign a bill that would enhance the state’s mineral and oil revenue.

At first, Hansen confirmed he had struck a deal with Ford. The White House, however, said that while there had been conversations about the bill with the Senator, no deal had been made. Wyoming’s delegation had long been assumed to be safely in the Reagan camp, but it was technically uncommitted. With the contest so close, a shift of even a handful of delegates could tip the balance. Under tough questioning, Hansen at one point told one of the reporters “Well, maybe I did. Okay, I did. G—damn you.” Hansen was but one of many politicians to be nailed by the assertive investigative reporters.
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One day later, both Hansen and the White House denied there had been any quid pro quo. Nessen shot down the story, asking reporters rhetorically that if the President had been using his signature pen to help him politically, then why had he signed the energy bill that hurt him in Texas, and why had he favored an increase in Social Security taxes? With that, fortunately for the President, the issue faded.
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On the Wednesday before the final round of state conventions, Reagan took to the airwaves again, this time on ABC, for a half-hour address to the nation. The cost was less than that of the speech on NBC, according to Jim Lake. But ABC’s market share was substantially smaller than the older network. The cost for the airtime was $58,000 and the production cost another $25,000.
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This time, however, Reagan never mentioned President Ford’s name—or Henry Kissinger’s or Jimmy Carter’s for that matter. But he directed some criticism towards the Georgian. Reagan mainly called for a “New Coalition” of politically conservative minded people from the two parties and from independents. Alluding to Carter, Reagan said, “You can’t get to the heart of an issue by being vague about it. I’m not asking you to help me because I say, ‘Trust me, don’t ask questions, and everything will be fine.’ I ask you to trust yourself. Trust your own knowledge of what’s happening in America.”
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Clearly, Sears wanted the uncommitted delegates going to Kansas City to see Reagan in another light: more Presidential, more visionary, and more upbeat. Sears always had his eye on the fall election and not only the convention. He had always resisted the ideological holy war Reagan’s conservative supporters had wanted to wage against Ford. Although Reagan’s campaign had only taken off after he moved right in his message, Sears wanted to now bring him back to the center ever so gently. This action too by Sears was the subject of much debate for years after.

Sears and his defenders believed that Reagan’s winning the nomination of the Republican Party would only be worthwhile if the nomination was worth something. Sears knew Catholics were uncomfortable with the overtly “born again” Carter.
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And that strategy was evident in the newest speech, when Reagan made open appeals to ethnic voters in the Northeast, especially Catholics. The
coup de
grace
was when Reagan closed by quoting Pope Pius XII: “The American people have a genius for great and unselfish deeds. Into the hands of America, God has placed the destiny of an afflicted mankind.”
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The next state convention began on July 8, when Ford shocked Reagan and took the majority of North Dakota’s eighteen delegates.
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It had been widely assumed that this upper plains state would be receptive to Reagan’s populist message. Reagan’s supporters had told the media that their man, and not Ford, would receive ten or eleven of the delegates.
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Reagan spoke to the five hundred delegates assembled in Fargo and was greeted with only polite applause until he warmed up the crowd with his regular stump speech. It was then that he was interrupted by hearty applause several times.

In fact, the state GOP machine, firmly under Ford’s lieutenants’ control, muscled out two likely Reagan delegates at a nominating committee meeting (which the Reagan people had not attended) the morning of Reagan’s speech. When their move was learned, Reagan’s supporters threatened a floor fight and so were eventually granted four delegates in an effort to prevent a whole scale range war inside the state party. The agreement was not made for charity’s sake but for survival.
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At the national convention, Reagan actually received seven votes for his nomination from North Dakota.
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But at the time, the result was better than expected for Ford.

Baker later released a new list of Ford’s committed delegates, including the twelve from North Dakota, which showed Ford extending his count to 1,067. Reagan was hovering just below a thousand, according to most sources.
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But Reagan wasn’t out of the race by any means. He had been slowly closing the gap throughout the conventions, but he was also running out of Western and Southern states.

Ford regained the rhetorical offensive when, in an Oval Office press confer- ence, he came out four square for Reagan joining him on the ticket. The President Ford Committee finally concluded that it was better to love thy conservative brother for the time being. Ford sloughed off questions about the sharp rhetoric between the two that might keep them from working together. “I exclude nobody,” Ford said. Once the Ford campaign settled on the “how to handle Reagan” issue, it became an effective tactic.
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Reagan was once again forced to refute his interest in being number two, this time in Colorado.

Ford told the media he believed the delegates should be aware of his potential running mates and, curiously, even suggested it be left to them to decide. “A Presidential nominee ought to make his wishes known to the delegates.” His nomination would rise or fall in Kansas City on this issue.
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In the meantime, while both camps were attempting raids on the other’s delegates, the Israelis, to the applause of many and the denunciation of others, staged a daring raid on Entebbe, Uganda, where they successfully rescued hostages from a hijacked airliner.
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While Baker was strongly asserting control over the delegate hunt and Ford was wisely romancing Reagan, doubts remained about much of the President’s campaign operation, just as they had dogged him for two years. “President Ford’s fractious campaign is lurching toward his increasing probable nomination in an atmosphere contaminated by recriminations, backstabbing and personal power plays which have brought the campaign to the brink of anarchy,” reported Evans and Novak. They quoted one insider as saying, “I’d say there’s a lot more gossip than work going on here.”
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Ford operatives who came in for the most barbs from the acerbic columnists were Morton, Spencer, Cheney, Nessen, and Bob Hartmann.
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In fact, several days later, Hartmann had his stripes yanked when his authority over issuing Presidential statements was taken away from him. And another media adviser to Ford, Robert Mead, resigned under heavy criticism, mostly due to complaints lodged against him by PBS and Robert MacNeill for providing poor assistance during a state dinner that featured Queen Elizabeth.
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Also attending that dinner were several delegates being wooed by the Ford campaign. In fact, sitting next to the Queen of England was the loquacious Clarke Reed.
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When it came to handing out the goodies and perks, Reagan could not match the allure of the Ford White House, and people like Reed were especially susceptible to such courting.

Colorado began its convention process and Ford scored a small, but important psychological advantage over Reagan when he won three and Reagan only five of the delegates initially selected. But on Saturday, July 10, Reagan scored a comeback and won fifteen out of sixteen at-large delegates, despite being rudely cut off by the pro-Ford Convention Chairman, Carl Williams, while speaking.
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Jack Ford was also in Colorado, campaigning for his father, who had been warned that he could suffer another embarrassment like Missouri and did not attend. The younger Ford gave an impressive speech on his father’s behalf. He spoke for sixteen minutes, thus also violating the ten-minute speaking rule, but he was not silenced.
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The hall roared its disapproval of Williams’s childish actions against Reagan.

Reagan had spoken for twenty-six minutes, but he was thrilling both his and Ford’s delegates. Reagan was clearly miffed at the slight, but Williams would not back down and even slashed his hand across his throat to give the sign to technicians to turn off Reagan’s microphone. Four years later, in New Hampshire, Reagan would declare he was “paying for this microphone” insuring a place in American political history. As they left the convention hall at Colorado State University, Reagan and the young Ford encountered each other. They shook hands, and in a classy move, Jack Ford told Reagan, “Good luck.”
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Following the Colorado results, according to most news agencies, Reagan once again cut Ford’s lead to around forty delegates. He was closing the gap, but not fast enough.
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Colorado proved another disappointment coming on the heels of the surprise in North Dakota.
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Reagan’s forces had hoped to capture all thirty-one Colorado delegates.

On Monday, July 12, Democrats gathered at a unity and harmony convention in New York City to nominate James Earl Carter of Georgia for President and Senator Walter Mondale of Minnesota for Vice President. Post-convention polling showed Carter trouncing both Reagan and Ford by 30 percent, and the Democrats were confident, especially in light of the fierce contest still going on inside the GOP.

Most of the speakers in New York at the Democratic Convention aimed their fire not at Reagan, but at Ford. They attacked the “Nixon-Ford Administration.”
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Many of the Democrats in New York bought into the false image of Reagan, but one who did not was Senator Edmund Muskie of Maine. Several days before his party’s convention, Muskie told reporters that he thought Carter viewed Reagan as a “potentially tougher campaigner” than Ford.
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Both the Ford and Reagan camps slammed the ticket as “liberal.” But Henry Kissinger didn’t help Ford’s cause when he told reporters that Carter’s foreign policy would be “fairly consistent” with the Ford foreign policy.
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Reagan issued a statement regarding Carter and Mondale that said, in part, “They’re going to go forward on the same big government idea in seeking solutions in Washington pro- grams for our problems.”
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Mondale was not nominated unanimously, as several minor candidates received a smattering of votes, including one for gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson.
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Two of the three networks would provide “gavel to gavel” coverage of the Democrats, as they would of the Republican meeting one month later. Only ABC began later than the other two, because of their broadcast of the annual All-Star Game during the Democrats’ convention.

Network coverage typically began at 8:00 P.M. and concluded around midnight, but the coverage would continue even if the conventions did not run on time. And they rarely did. Correspondents like Tom Brokaw and Katherine Mackin of
NBC News
and Charlie Gibson of
ABC News
prowled the floor, interviewing dignitaries and delegates but rarely each other. High above the floor were the anchormen, and all involved had a ball. The networks devoted millions of dollars to convention coverage every four years.
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The last state conventions remained in Utah and Connecticut, on the weekend of July 18, but not before President Ford took a break to attend the All-Star Game in Philadelphia, where he threw out the first ball. Ernie Banks, the great former shortstop for the Chicago Cubs joined Ford in his box, along with America’s catcher, Joe Garagiola. Banks was famous for once saying, “It’s a nice day, let’s play two.”
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Ford himself had two more to play before the Republican World Series at the Kemper Arena in August.