Ronnie and Nancy_ Their Path to the White House - Bob Colacello [299]
The Bloomingdales, the Deutsches, the Darts, and the Tuttles flew in for the announcement dinner, which was held on November 13, and Jerry Reagan vs. Carter: 1977–1980
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Zipkin was there with the Cowleses and the Buckleys. All four Reagan children attended, and Jimmy Stewart narrated the official campaign film, which introduced the new, supposedly improved Ronald Reagan. “I believe this country hungers for spiritual revival; hungers to once again see honor placed above political expediency; to see government once again the protector of our liberties, not the distributor of gifts and privilege,”
Reagan intoned. In keeping with Sears’s cautious, above-the-fray approach, the speech recycled Reagan’s criticism of big government and support of a strong national defense, but without the hard-edged rhetoric that had thrilled conservative audiences but frightened almost everyone else.
Its most daring proposal was a call for a new economic and military partnership with Canada and Mexico, and no mention was made, for example, of the seizure of the American embassy in Tehran nine days earlier. A headline in the following morning’s New York Times said it all: the 1980
model reagan: strident campaign tone is gone.65
That morning Reagan flew to Washington for a news conference, at which he announced that he would not participate in debates or other public appearances with his rivals for the nomination. He was introduced by Representative Jack Kemp as the “oldest and the wisest candidate,” an unfortunate choice of words that annoyed Reagan’s handlers and led journalists to refer to him among themselves as “the O & W.”66 Sears had cut a deal with Kemp in October: in exchange for the congressman’s agreement to endorse Reagan instead of running himself, he would be made campaign chairman in place of Laxalt. When Laxalt got wind of the plot, however, he went directly to the Reagans, who overruled Sears. At the news conference in Washington, Reagan presented Kemp as the campaign’s “chief spokesman.”
Arthur Laffer disclosed to me that Kemp’s real goal from the beginning was to be Reagan’s running mate. Laffer had therefore advised the young congressman not to give up his bargaining power by dropping out too early. “I had a little dinner party for Jack Kemp at my home in Rolling Hills Estates with the Reagans and the Tuttles and the Darts. I have a little guesthouse in the back. I told him, ‘Jack, what you’ve got to do is walk down to the guesthouse with Ron. I’ll set it all up, and you and Ron just sit down and have a little private chat for a while. And you tell him this:
“Sir, you know I adore you. I think the world of you. I’ve worked for you, you’ve been my hero, my role model, all my life. What I’m going to do, sir, is I’m going to run, and every delegate I get, come convention time, I’m 4 8 0
Ronnie and Nancy: Their Path to the White House going to instruct all those delegates to vote for you.” Jack, that’s what you’ve got to tell him.’ And they were down there for half an hour. My scheme was working. When they came back up, they were chatting away, all smiles. Then I finally got to Jack. ‘Jack, did you do it? Did you tell him that?’ He said, ‘Oh, no, Art, I couldn’t. I told him I’d never run against him. I’d give him all the support I could.’ I said, ‘Jack, you just lost the vice presidency. He’s not going to pick a wuss for a vice president. He’s going to pick someone who shows vote-getting ability. Why would he take someone who doesn’t run?’ And, of course, that’s Jack’s history. He’s made an ever greater reputation by not running for ever higher offices.”67
On Thanksgiving, nine days after the announcement, Nancy called Mike Deaver and asked him to come up to San Onofre Drive. As he came into the foyer, he could see Ronnie in the living room with Sears, Black, and Lake, but Nancy surprised him by asking if he would mind waiting in their bedroom. After twenty minutes, Deaver later