Ronnie and Nancy_ Their Path to the White House - Bob Colacello [314]
a: Well, you know, each of us are very individual and we have our own careers and our own interests that we’ve been working towards—I mean, what would make us normal? If we were book-keepers or waitresses or gas station—I mean, what do they want?
Not that I would give them what they wanted anyway, but I’d be curious to know. You know, I don’t think that anything that any of us is doing is so alarming, you know.
q: It’s just unexpected, apparently, to some people.
a: I think it’s kind of refreshing. . . .
q: You gonna vote?
a: Yes.
q: Jimmy Carter, John Anderson, Ronald Reagan?
a: I’m gonna vote for my father. It wouldn’t be very nice not to vote for him, would it?
q: That’s the only reason?
a: No. I’m gonna vote for him because I think he’d be a good President. I do.154
On October 28, Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter had their only debate. “[It was] scheduled for 8 p.m. in Philadelphia,” Deaver recalled. “I had planned a quiet, early dinner, topped off with a 1964 Cabernet. I let Reagan have one glass of wine before the debate . . . a little color for his cheeks. The Reagans, Stu Spencer, and I were the only ones in the room. Then he went into the bedroom for half an hour to rest. When I walked in, to let him know it was time to leave, he was standing at the mirror, practicing his lines, rehearsing his opening statement.”155
Reagan vs. Carter: 1977–1980
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Some people thought it was all over when the President told the audience that he had asked his twelve-year-old daughter, Amy, what she thought the most important issue was. “She said she thought nuclear weaponry and the control of nuclear arms,” said Carter, as the audience groaned. “I knew the race was won,” wrote Deaver later.156
As Jack Wrather put it, “It was a cut-and-dried situation at the end, because Carter made such an ass of himself. Again, I’m sure he’s a very decent, and, I think, even intelligent guy, but he just made an ass of himself.
He didn’t do anything; he went from one side to the other. And he gave people of this country such a sense of insecurity that, during that last famous debate that he and Ron had, it was just so obvious that he really didn’t know what he was talking about. You know, when Ron said,
‘Jimmy, there you go again,’ or something like that, everybody in the United States said, ‘That’s it.’ They said, ‘We agree with you, Ron.’ Everybody talked back to the television set.”157
On Thursday, October 30, the Reagan campaign’s worst nightmare seemed to be coming true: the Iranian majlis, or parliament, had started debating whether to release the American hostages held in Tehran for nearly a year.
Carter’s failure to secure their freedom continued to be the great disgrace of his administration, especially after an attempted rescue mission in April had ended with four Army helicopters crashing in the Iranian desert. Now, as Reagan’s advisers had feared, it looked as if he might be able to cut a deal just before the election. On Halloween there were reports that a DC-8 was waiting in Europe to fly the hostages home. On Saturday night, White House chief of staff Hamilton Jordan caught up with the President in Chicago and told him that the Iranians were offering terms. Canceling the next day’s campaign events, Carter flew back to Washington at four in the morning, only to realize that the Iranians were playing games: they wanted to release their captives one by one over a period of time. Meanwhile, all three networks were running hour-long specials on the first anniversary of the embassy seizure, which would fall on election day.158
That weekend, an article headlined close reagan business friends; they seem to personify his values appeared on the first page of The New York Times business section, with profiles of Holmes Tuttle, Justin Dart, Ted Cummings, Earle Jorgensen, Jack Wrather, and William French Smith, who was described as “a possible Attorney General.” Tuttle, the Times reported, 5 0 4
Ronnie and Nancy: