Rawhide Down_ The Near Assassination of Ronald Reagan - Del Quentin Wilber [22]
This event, like every other in his day, was outlined in the script Reagan had reviewed earlier that morning:
MEETING: With Hispanic Supporters
LOCATION: Cabinet Room
TIME: 10:30AM–10:45AM
BACKGROUND: This is an opportunity to thank and encourage those who have been strongly supportive in the past.
10:30AM You enter Cabinet Room where your guests will have just completed their briefing. The press pool will enter for photos.
10:33AM You will offer brief remarks.
10:40AM The White House photographer will take photos of you with each participant.
10:45AM You thank your guests and take your leave.
Reagan arrived in the Cabinet Room ten minutes late and took his customary seat in the middle of the large wooden table. The back of his chair, which was two inches taller than those used by his cabinet secretaries, had a bronze label that read “THE PRESIDENT, January 20, 1981.” In front of Reagan and the Hispanic supporters were white coffee cups in saucers. Reagan thanked the men and women for their “sizable and good showing” in the November election and said, “I know you have been told about what we are doing here in regard to getting more Hispanics in our government.” Then, eyeing the journalists who had been ushered in to observe and take photographs, he continued: “But I also know that at the moment it might be better to confine ourselves to small talk here, before we get down to any real problems or issues.”
Reagan smiled and turned to the clutch of journalists. “I haven’t had a chance to congratulate you all—so many of you were members of the cast of the Gridiron up there that are covering us here. Have you ever thought about show business?”
The Gridiron Club dinner, an annual gala roast of official Washington, had taken place the previous Saturday evening. Journalists wore silly costumes, put on skits, and sang satirical songs, poking fun at figures such as Reagan, his wife, cabinet secretaries, and a number of politicians from both parties. At one point, the real Ginger Rogers took the stage and danced with a Washington Post columnist. At 11:30 p.m., after all the skits and songs were finished, Reagan took the dais and brought the house down with his self-deprecating wit and a few zingers aimed at his political adversaries.
Reagan was masterly at such events, but then he had been performing in front of audiences for years, and not just as an actor. During a long stint as a spokesman for General Electric, he had delivered hundreds of speeches at GE plants and offices across the country; over the years, he spoke to tens of thousands of the company’s employees, from factory workers to executives, and the experience had taught him how to connect with many kinds of audiences.
The previous Friday, for example, he had hosted a White House luncheon for the National Baseball Hall of Fame in the State Dining Room, where he mingled and joked with the players and then gave a rousing speech that drew on his experiences as a radio announcer in the 1930s. Reagan told the ballplayers a favorite story about how, when he worked for a Des Moines radio station, he relied on telegraph feeds from the Cubs’ ballpark to broadcast a play-by-play of the games. His job, which required a quick mind and a vivid imagination, was to transform short, cryptic messages into cinematic descriptions of fans catching foul balls and players turning snappy double plays. One afternoon, the wire went silent in the middle of an at bat. Dead air is a radio broadcaster’s worst enemy, but Reagan didn’t panic. He had the batter foul off pitch after