Ronnie and Nancy_ Their Path to the White House - Bob Colacello [305]
June was a month for reconciliation. Henry Salvatori was welcomed back into the Kitchen Cabinet at a dinner Holmes and Virginia Tuttle gave at their Hancock Park home the night of the California primary.98
On June 13, Reagan held a joint news conference with Bill Brock and announced that the moderate RNC chairman would be staying on. That evening, 1,100 of the party faithful paid $500 a plate for a “unity dinner”
organized by the Wicks to help pay off the campaign debts of Bush, Baker, Connally, Dole, and Crane, all of whom made speeches extolling the victor. Ford repeated his pledge of support via speakerphone. Efrem Zimbal-ist Jr. was the emcee, and Jimmy Stewart, Irene Dunne, Robert Stack, and Joseph Cotten lent a dash of Old Hollywood glamour.99
On June 20 the EAC gathered at the Palmer House in Chicago. “The meeting began with Bill Casey’s update on the campaign,” Arthur Laffer’s minutes read. “In an upbeat discussion, President Ford’s total support of the Reagan candidacy after a meeting in Palm Springs was described, as well as a successful Unity Dinner.” The Kitchen Cabinet and their new corporate allies were so sure of a Reagan victory in the fall, it seems, that a large portion of the meeting was taken up by Ed Meese’s discussion of plans for “the Transition to a Reagan Presidency.” One member, New York businessman George Champion, even proposed having Reagan publicly designate George Shultz and Bill Simon as his choices for secretary of state and secretary of the treasury, respectively. “This would have substantial beneficial effects on Eastern attitudes toward Reagan, as well as being exceptionally good appointments,” Champion argued. But John Connally, who had been added to the EAC roster, worried that anyone named so prematurely might become a campaign issue, and he was backed up by Casey and others.100
Reagan vs. Carter: 1977–1980
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In early July the Reagans spent five days at the Wilsons’ new ranch in northern Mexico, resting up for the convention. (The Wilsons owned the ranch in partnership with Diego Redo, a hotel tycoon from one of the oldest Mexican families, and his wife, Norma.) Only Earle and Marion Jorgensen and Bob and Betty Adams were invited along. “Ronnie brought three acceptance speeches written for him by three different people,” Bill Wilson told me. “I remember him sitting out on the front porch of our house reading those three speeches, and he finally put them all back in his briefcase and took out the yellow pad and started writing his own. How much he kept of each one of the three, I have no idea, but he wrote his own from scratch.”
Wilson also told me, “Earle and Ronnie and I were on horses, riding around the ranch, when Ronnie asked each of us who we thought he should pick for vice president. The interesting thing about that was that Betty had anticipated that this might happen, and she said, ‘Don’t suggest George Bush’—though he was the one I would have suggested, and I actually did, but I had to wait. I said, ‘Ronnie, wait until this evening at cocktails and I’ll tell you who I think.’ But I had to go back to the house and tell Betty, ‘Yes, it did happen, and I honestly think George Bush would be the person. Even though he may have made some adverse comments during the campaign, between the two of them they have the chance of getting the most electoral votes—and that’s the name of the game right now.’”101
According to Wilson, Earle Jorgensen recommended Jack Kemp—
Marion, along with Betty and Nancy, was still mad at Bush for his disparaging remarks about Ronnie. “I don’t know whether our suggestions had any effect on him or not,” Wilson concluded. “I think by the time they got to the convention, there was so much politics and so much backroom maneuvering that I’m sure he didn’t remember what we had said.”102
The day after they returned from Mexico, Marion and Betty hosted Nancy’s birthday party at Chasen’s. It was the biggest one yet, with everyone from the Annenbergs to the Sinatras