Reagan's doubts were gnawing at him. He called Stu Spencer and asked, “You still feel the same way about Bush?” Spencer assured him that nothing had changed his opinion that Bush was Reagan's best choice.97
Bill Casey had been invested in the Ford idea ever since he had visited the former president several weeks earlier and come away believing that Ford wanted to go on the ticket. Now he needed to buy time for the negotiators, so he sent word down to the convention floor to “keep the ‘spontaneous’ demonstration marking the end of the roll call and Reagan's nomination going as long as possible,” as the Washington Post reported.98
Reagan and Ford talked once again by phone but nothing was resolved. In the 10 o'clock meeting, the Ford people, sensing that they'd tried to grab too much in earlier negotiations, backed off on some of their demands. Meese, at 10:45, briefed Reagan on the new framework: Ford still wanted veto power over Reagan's cabinet selections, and he would also name the head of Office of Management and Budget and the head of the National Security Agency.99
Over at Joe Louis Arena, Reagan's nomination was imminent. David Broder and Lou Cannon filed a story with the headline “Ford Reportedly Accepts No. 2 Spot on GOP Ticket.” The headline reflected the doubts of the two scribes. Cannon once again was proving his perspicacity as a political reporter. All week he had been telling anyone who would listen that it would be Bush, not Ford.100
The Reagan-Ford deal was unraveling, but nobody in the hall knew it. Former Michigan governor George Romney was a Bush delegate, but this did not stop him from spreading the word on the floor that Ford would be on the ticket with Reagan. Romney had gone so far as to tell Bush face-to-face that morning that he was dumping him for Ford.101 Bob Dole had been led to believe it was all set. But as the evening went on, he later said, “I got nervous because it was taking too long. Something happened. Maybe we left the wrong people in charge.”102
RONALD WILSON REAGAN WAS finally nominated for president at 11:13 P.M., when the Montana delegates put him over the top.103 A prolonged demonstration of almost forty minutes took place. The band played “California, Here I Come,” and 12,000 red, white, and blue balloons fell. Delegates joyously popped them.104 For sixteen years, since Reagan's speech for Goldwater, conservatives had waited for this moment. Their man, their leader, had finally won the Republican Party's nomination for president of the United States.
Reagan received 1,939 delegate votes; John Anderson 37; George Bush, 13; and Anne Armstrong, former U.S. ambassador to the Court of St. James, 1. Four delegates abstained.105
Photographers were invited into Reagan's suite to memorialize the occasion and the nominee looked serene. His family members—Nancy, daughter Patti, sons Mike and Ron, and daughter-in-law Colleen—were smiling brightly. Casey, Wirthlin, and Meese, on the other hand, had no time to savor the nomination they'd worked so hard for. They were up in Ford's suite desperately trying to salvage the Dream Ticket, but it was falling apart.
Allen informed Hannaford, Nofziger, and Marty Anderson of his unauthorized initiative to Bush via Stef Halper and the good news that Bush would support the platform. Hannaford, with Mike Deaver also present, told the group that it might be best to start arguing for another option for Reagan.106
Ford, on the advice of his men, had told Reagan when the Gipper called earlier that he wanted to sleep on the whole matter, but Reagan dug in his heels. He told Ford in no uncertain terms that he needed to have Ford's answer that night. Deaver said Reagan was “not happy.”107 Reagan's men later realized that the Ford team wanted to wait another twelve hours so the Dream Ticket would become an unmistakable fact with the world, making it impossible for Reagan to back out without losing face.
Just before 11:30 P.M., Meese, Casey, and Wirthlin reported back to the governor that negotiations were not going well.108 Deaver warned Hannaford and Nofziger that the convention “is about to go up in smoke, out of control … if we don't give them a decision.” Nofziger proposed that they go upstairs and tell the negotiators. They bounded up the stairs to find Kissinger, Greenspan, and Barrett in the room.109 Deaver told them that it was decision time and added, “The governor wants us to see President Ford.”110 After a brief silence, Barrett excused himself to go into Ford's room. He soon came out and said, “He's going downstairs, and I think the answer is ‘No.’”111
Around 11:30, Ford, with Barrett in tow, arrived at Reagan's suite. Reagan and Ford closed the door and went into the dining room by themselves. Five minutes later they emerged and shook hands, and Ford departed after they bade each other goodnight.
“I have to say the answer is ‘No,’” Reagan told his men. Ford had told Reagan that his “gut reaction” was that it “just wouldn't work.”112 Maybe Reagan was acting. No one will ever really know. He had outmaneuvered the fearsome Hollywood moguls as head of the Screen Actors Guild, and it was possible he'd just forced a former president's hand, leading Ford to pull out of the co-presidency concept. Hannaford said years later that it was typical Reagan to let all the “elements play out.”113 In any event, Reagan had just dodged a bullet. He was relieved.
The Candidate said, “Well, what do we do now?”114
After a prolonged silence, Peter Hannaford said, “Governor, maybe it's time to call George Bush.”115
Seeing no objection from his most trusted advisers, Reagan reluctantly said, “Well, let's get Bush on the phone.”116
BUSH HAD BEEN IN the downstairs bar of the hotel with two of his sons, George and Jeb, having a quiet beer. When they got back to the suite, Jeb grabbed his friend David Bates and said, “Let's go drink some scotch,” and they went to another room to be alone.117 Bush stayed in the suite with Jim Baker, Vic Gold, and some family and other close aides. Drinking a Heineken, he awaited a courtesy call from a Reagan aide to formally tell him that Ford was going to join the ticket, as if he didn't already know that.
The phone rang, but it wasn't from Reagan. It was the Secret Service, telling Bush that they had taken up a position two floors down. They wanted to know whether Bush needed anything. “Need anything? What the hell's that supposed to mean?”118 To this day, no one can account for the speedy actions of the Secret Service, although it is plausible that agents assigned to Reagan heard about the movement toward Bush and took action, detailing agents to the soon-to-be running mate even before Reagan had called Bush.
At 11:37, shortly after the mystifying Secret Service call, Bush's phone rang again.119 This time it was Mr. Reagan calling.
Jim Baker answered, handed the phone to Bush, and then just as quickly cleared the room of nearly everybody except Barbara Bush, their son Marvin, and Dean Burch, the former head of the party. Reagan brightly said, “Hello, George, this is Ron Reagan. George, I would like to go over there and tell them that I am recommending you for vice president. Could I ask you one thing—do I have your permission to make an announcement that you support the platform across the board?”120 Reagan asked specifically about the pro-life plank. Bush, flabbergasted, readily agreed to support the conservative document “across the board” per his testy but productive conversation with Halper.121 “I'd be honored, Governor.”122 And that was that.
Someone knocked on the door of Jeb's room and told him that his father wanted to see him. Jeb, halfway into his cups, went and saw his parents “not looking very happy.” He asked whether Reagan had made a courtesy call and the elder Bush languidly said, “Yes.” After a pause, the father added, “Yeah, he asked me to be his running mate.” Jeb almost fainted. Ambassador Bush pulled the same gag on Vic Gold, but rather than fainting, Gold jumped five feet in the air.123
A few minutes later a television set in the Bush suite showed a network reporter shouting, “Not Ford! It's Bush!”124 The suite quickly filled with a crush of friends and well-wishers. Bush was absolutely stunned by Reagan's call. Before the phone rang he'd been sitting in his suite, nursing bruised feelings toward Reagan and Ford. Vic Gold had been so angry at Ford for touting Bush, telling everyone he didn't want the vi
ce presidency—and then apparently taking the post—that Bush aides felt compelled to gently escort Gold away from the few reporters who were attending what they thought was Bush's political deathwatch.
Now reporters descended on the suite for the celebration. Bush didn't even have time to put on a suit and tie, so he met with the media wearing a red Polo shirt. He frankly told them how shocked he was: “Out of a clear blue sky … Governor Reagan called me up and asked if I would be willing to run with him on this ticket. He was most gracious in the invitation and I, of course, was very, very pleased to be invited to do this.… I was surprised.”125
Just as shocked were the media outlets that had breathlessly reported the Dream Ticket story most of the day as if it were a done deal. As Reagan was calling Bush, a network anchor told his audience that “it would be an electrifying moment” when Reagan and Ford appeared together on stage that night.126 The Associated Press and United Press International had already moved several stories about the Reagan-Ford tandem, and the Chicago Sun-Times and the Wall Street Journal had even printed early editions announcing the news of the Dream Ticket.127
REAGAN HAD FINALLY MADE his choice, but he still faced the real danger of a runaway convention. Deaver “had just been down to the convention and he came in and said, ‘Boy, this place is so tense down there it is about to explode,’” recalled Hannaford.128 The situation would become even more disastrous if the delegates retired for the evening thinking that the choice was Ford only to wake up the next morning and find out it was Bush.
It was a taboo in politics for a candidate to appear before he'd actually accepted the nomination. But the normally superstitious Reagan listened to Deaver and recognized that he needed to get the convention under control. If he waited to the make the Bush announcement until the press conference scheduled for the 11 o'clock the next morning, there would be mass confusion—and mass disappointment. Worse, the media would become fixated on picking apart what had happened in the Ford negotiations. The Gipper knew he needed to change the subject quickly, and get people to focus on Bush, not Ford. Consequently, he broke with precedent and went to Joe Louis Arena.129
The networks informed their viewers of the Bush selection before Reagan got the chance to tell his own convention. NBC went first, less than fifteen minutes after Reagan had called Bush. Chris Wallace, the thirty-two-year-old son of television legend Mike Wallace, was covering his first convention, but he got the biggest scoop of the night. Sporting the standard-issue headphones, he was on the floor with the Illinois delegation, which included Reagan's Midwest political director, Frank Donatelli. Reagan operatives had just passed Donatelli the stunning news, but the campaign had given no directives about what to tell the media. Donatelli wasn't sure, but figured what the heck, so he told Wallace, who at 11:55 P.M. went live with the dramatic news bulletin that Reagan was headed to Joe Louis Arena to announce his surprise choice of Bush.130
CBS went with the story maybe thirty seconds later.131 When a stunned Cronkite was told on air by Lesley Stahl that it would be Bush—and not Ford—the newscaster “buried his head in his hands.”132 Stahl went with the story only because yet another Reagan official was screaming it in her ear.
NBC came in dead last in the announcement. Sanctimoniously, John Chancellor told his audience, “You have just seen an example of politics out of hand in an electronic age,” as if his network had had nothing to do with the “out of hand” quality of the day.133
By now, all the networks, having been a part of the problem, upbraided Reagan for allowing the situation to get out of control. Hal Bruno of ABC said the fiasco “doesn't show very good judgment” on Reagan's part. David Brinkley complained that the networks had been used as “something of an intercom” by the Ford and Reagan camps and their supporters.134 Only Tom Brokaw at NBC had given the story a wide berth, having been warned by Stu Spencer that it was all nonsense.135
Reagan, accompanied by Nancy to help soften the blow, addressed the hall around 12:15 A.M.136 The place exploded when the Gipper arrived. Everybody was cheering but nobody seemed to know what for: Reagan-Ford, Reagan-Bush, or Reagan-Ford-Kemp, which would have made a pretty good touch-football team.
The hall became hushed as Reagan mounted the podium. Many of the delegates were surprised that Ford was not there with the Gipper, as had been previously billed. Reagan told the audience that he'd come down there to straighten out “the rumors and the gossip.”137 He informed the astonished conventioneers that he and Ford “have gone over this and over this and over this, and he and I have come to the conclusion, and he believes deeply, that he can be of more value as the former president, campaigning his heart out, as he has promised to do, and not as a member of the ticket.”138
The Dream Ticket was dead.
Reagan took four minutes to get to the other subject he wanted to discuss, and he did not seem completely comfortable with the idea yet. He announced the Bush selection “with a taut smile on his face,” as Hedrick Smith reported in the New York Times. Reagan called Bush “a man we all know and a man who was a candidate, a man who has great experience in government, and a man who told me that he can enthusiastically support the platform across the board.”139
The hall rang with cheers for Bush, or perhaps because the long night of drama, which had frayed everyone's nerves, was coming to a close.
Reagan's quick announcement of the Bush selection had succeeded in keeping a bad situation from getting worse: reporters were forced to deal with the new story rather than just pick apart what was now an old story.
As for what had scuttled the Reagan-Ford negotiations, both camps stayed tight-lipped. The line coming out of Team Reagan was “The governor finally decided the price they wanted was too high.”140 Maybe.
The official line from Team Ford was that the former president had never wanted to do it in the first place and had finally said, “Goddamn it all, it's not going to work. I knew it wouldn't work.” Maybe.141
WITH HIS DRAMATIC POST-MIDNIGHT announcement of his running mate, Reagan had stanched the wound he and his team had inflicted by getting caught up in the high-profile Dream Ticket negotiations. Had he not moved so quickly, the bloodletting would have been much worse.
But that didn't mean Reagan had defused all criticism.
Ed Rollins, a GOP consultant from California and a Nofzinger protégé, was in the command-post trailer when the phone call came down saying that Bush was the pick. “Fuck,” Rollins grumbled. Then he was told he needed to break the bad news to Paul Laxalt. Not wanting to deal with an angry Laxalt, Rollins turned to Frank Fahrenkopf, Laxalt's friend from Nevada, and told him, “It is going to be Bush. And they want you to tell Laxalt.”142
But before Fahrenkopf could reach his friend, Laxalt spotted Bill Timmons on the phone writing down names: “Baker, Kemp, Vander Jagt …” Realizing that Timmons was on the line with Reagan, Laxalt tried to speak to his old friend, but Timmons was saying to Governor Reagan, “You can't call them yet. You've got to call Bush.” Laxalt suddenly understood that Reagan had chosen Bush; Timmons was writing down the names of the men Reagan had passed over, who would need to be notified of the nominee's decision. Jack Germond and Jules Witcover reported that Laxalt “turned white” and grabbed the phone from Timmons, but found Ed Meese now on the line. Laxalt pleaded, “Ron, Ron. I've got to talk to Ron.” Meese replied, “He can't talk to you, he's on the phone to Bush.” Laxalt implored Meese to delay the announcement until the next day, but to no avail; Reagan had already left for Joe Louis Arena.143
Laxalt was “pissed off” when he found out about the Bush selection, as he acknowledged years later. “And then I was pissed off at Judy Woodruff, too, who was pestering the hell out of me.”144 It wasn't just that the conservative Laxalt had deep reservations about the Brahmin Bush; Reagan's old friend and adviser was especially angry that he hadn't been consulted on the choice after the Ford deal had fallen through.
When a reporter asked Laxalt about his feelings on Reagan-Bush, he g
amely replied, “I think it's a winnable ticket.”145 Then he stormed out of the convention.
Laxalt wasn't alone in doubting Reagan's decision. One of Reagan's closest confidants—someone who had been with his campaign for six years—grumbled on background to a top political reporter, “This is the sorriest day in a decade for Republicans.”146
Reagan had to figure out how to turn this lemon into lemonade.
25
FAMILY, WORK, NEIGHBORHOOD, PEACE, AND FREEDOM
“With a deep awareness of the responsibility conferred by your trust, I accept your nomination for the presidency of the United States.”
The Jazz Age American novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald famously wrote, “There are no second acts in American lives.”1 He wrote those gloomy words in the immediate aftermath of World War I, when an entire generation of artists—a “Lost Generation”—looked with revulsion at the devastation wrought by the great powers. The “War to End All Wars” had snuffed out seventy-two million lives; it introduced the world to mechanized death, trench warfare, and gas attacks. The horrific carnage of that conflict ushered in an age of existential uncertainty and, in the view of Fitzgerald and his disillusioned and drunken peers, of mindless materialism.
Rendezvous with Destiny: Ronald Reagan and the Campaign that Changed America Page 52