Ronnie and Nancy_ Their Path to the White House - Bob Colacello [295]
To burnish his image as a statesman, Reagan, accompanied by Nancy, traveled to Asia in the spring and Europe in the fall of 1978. In Japan he met with Prime Minister Fukada, had dinner with the leaders of the Diet, Reagan vs. Carter: 1977–1980
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and addressed the Keideran, the country’s most important business association. In a pair of gestures designed to please his right-wing base and show support for longtime American allies, he also stopped in Taipei, to pay a call on Chiang Kai-shek’s son, who had succeeded him as president, and Tehran, where Shah Reza Pahlavi’s regime was struggling to subdue a revolution in the making. Britain, France, and Germany were on Reagan’s European itinerary, which included a second tête-à-tête with Conservative Party leader Margaret Thatcher, meetings with Chancellor Helmut Schmidt and future chancellor Helmut Kohl, and a visit to East Berlin via Checkpoint Charlie. In July 1979, the Reagans made an overnight trip to Mexico City to meet President López Portillo.
Through his Citizens for the Republic, Reagan assured himself a prominent role in the 1978 midterm elections. But, unlike 1976, when he had restricted his support to conservative Republicans, this time, Nofziger said,
“[we] became more interested in making friends and picking up brownie points for Reagan than in helping elect a select few. . . . We wanted broad party support for Reagan come 1980. So we contributed about $800,000
to campaigns that year and bought a lot of friends for him. What we sought was enough political support to create an impression of inevitability about a Reagan candidacy.”45 Among the more moderate Republicans Reagan hit the stump for was Senator Charles Percy of Illinois, who publicly credited him with his razor-thin win.
Nancy also worked to further the cause. “I remember the night they had the Nixons up from San Clemente to ask him for his help,” a close friend told me. According to Nancy’s records, she gave a dinner in August 1978 for the Nixons and the Annenbergs, with the Gosdens and the Deutsches as the only other guests. She served pea soup, fried chicken, and coconut mousse. Ronnie brought out a Haut Brion ’47 for the former president and his ambassador to London.46 Keeping the Annenbergs happy was more important than ever, since Gerald Ford had recently become a resident of Palm Springs—where he and Betty would grow closer to Walter and Lee—and was considered the only Republican who could spoil Reagan’s plans by seeking a rematch with Jimmy Carter. Despite Reagan’s loyalty during Watergate, Nixon’s allegiance would also come into question if the man who pardoned him ran. Asked about his plans by a reporter a few weeks earlier, Ford had declined to answer, but he pointed out that since leaving the White House he had traveled more than 400,000
miles on behalf of the Republican Party and some “deserving charities.”47
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Ronnie and Nancy: Their Path to the White House
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As 1979 began, Reagan was far ahead of a crowded field of potential contenders for the GOP crown. In a Gallup Poll released on January 10, he was the favorite of 40 percent of Republicans, followed by Ford with 24 percent, Senate Minority Leader Howard Baker of Tennessee with 9 percent, and former Texas governor John Connally with 6 percent.48 Lagging behind were two Illinois congressmen, John Anderson, a liberal, and Philip Crane, a conservative. As winter turned into spring, two more big names were added to the list: Senator Robert Dole and former CIA