Ronnie and Nancy_ Their Path to the White House - Bob Colacello [297]
One night in late April, the Wicks had dinner with Nancy at an Italian restaurant in Westwood and told her they would like to help raise money for Ronnie. “I said that we were thinking of having a lunch and inviting 4 7 6
Ronnie and Nancy: Their Path to the White House heads of different major corporations whom we knew and they knew,”
Charles Wick told me. “But then we thought, The only problem with a lunch is if certain guys can’t show up, then we’ve kind of blown it with them. She looked at us somewhat plaintively and said, ‘Gee, I wish you really could think of something.’ So we decided to give a cocktail party and bill it as the formation of the Ground Floor Committee—to try and give some characterization as to there’s always a reward if you’re on the right side.”55
The Wicks sent out telegrams on behalf of the Ground Floor Committee, which consisted of them and ten other couples, saying: the first meeting will be at our house, june 28, 1979. the next meeting will be at the white house. p.s. ronnie and nancy will be at our reception. “Ronnie and Nancy had been going to different cocktail receptions in an effort to raise money,” Wick continued. “And if they raised $17,000
or $18,000 in one evening, they felt that was a pretty good success. Well, we charged a thousand bucks—that was the maximum you could charge.
And the dramatic thing is, we wound up with $80,000. Freeman Gosden’s daughter, Linda, stood at the door collecting the checks. Mary Jane designed large, attractive nametags for everyone. And I’m sort of short and resent having to stand at the edge of a crowd and not being able to see over people’s heads. So we had Ronnie speak from a riser right out here by the pool. We had these two giant speakers, and Ronnie addressed those people in those booming terms, and it was fabulous.”56
A month later, The New York Times Magazine ran the kind of article that Sears was so adept at eliciting from the national media. Titled “Reagan: The 1980 Model,” the piece was as flattering to Sears as it was to the candidate.
“Ronald Reagan is setting out on his third campaign for the Republican Presidential nomination, and his first truly well-prepared campaign,” Adam Clymer wrote. “This time he may win. A late June Gallup Poll gave him an edge over President Carter for the first time—49 percent for Mr. Reagan as opposed to 45 percent for President Carter. Indeed, repackaging Ronald Reagan is the key growth industry in American politics today. In Washington and Los Angeles, experienced politicians are plotting the finances, the branch offices and franchise distributorships, the sales pitches and the promotional tours of the new candidate Reagan.”57
Sears let Laxalt try out the slogan for the new, middle-of-the-road Reagan: “You’re not talking about a right-wing nut with horns growing out of his ears. You’re talking about a responsible conservative.” He had Reagan Reagan vs. Carter: 1977–1980
4 7 7
himself confront the “age problem” head-on, believing that the electorate would get bored with the subject if it were openly aired. As the Times noted, if Reagan were elected, he would be the oldest incoming president in U.S. history, and while his opponents promised that they would not make an issue of his age, they found ways to get in their digs—Howard Baker said after a meeting with Reagan that they had had a good “father-son talk.”58 On the campaign trail, Reagan joked about his longevity—“I can remember when a hot story broke and the reporters would run in yelling, ‘Stop the chisels.’ ” But he was serious with the Times: “The world has changed. The advances that have been made in every form of health care are such that I don’t think you go by numbers anymore with regard to age. It’s an individual and his capacity, and I