by Bob Spitz
He was shell-shocked: “It was a big shock to him, as it was to me.” Sandy Quinn, interview with author, Oct. 30, 2014.
“He was very different”: George Steffes, interview with author, July 17, 2014.
“This citizen politician has determined”: Cannon, Governor Reagan, p. 246.
“Besides,” Tom Reed continues: Tom Reed, interview with author, Oct. 11, 2014.
At a reception: Tom Wicker, “Reagan Rebutted on Aides’ Ouster,” New York Times, Nov. 5, 1967.
“Gov. Ronald Reagan Faces”: Bell-McClure Syndicate press release, “Drew Pearson Special,” LCA, undated; “Spots on Mr. Clean,” Newsweek, Nov. 13, 1967.
“had harbored a homosexual ring”: “Spots on Mr. Clean,” Newsweek.
“I’m prepared to say that nothing”: Wicker, “Reagan Rebutted on Aides’ Ouster.”
“hurt our relationship with everyone”: William Clark interview, “11/6,” LCA.
“Mike’s father had caught him”: Edwin Meese, interview with author, Dec. 9, 2014.
“We ought to troll him”: Robert Finch, interview, undated, LCA, p. 7.
“Ronald Reagan has a strong”: Wallace Turner, “Reagan’s Chances Found Improving,” New York Times, June 18, 1967.
TWENTY-FOUR: THE NON-CANDIDATE
Considered large as these places: “We trucked tons of booze up there, whole truckloads.” Peter Graves, interview with author, July 19, 2014.
Early on the afternoon: “Nixon and Reagan Hold Conference in California,” New York Times, July 23, 1967.
“If I were to choose”: “It marked the first milestone on my road to the presidency.” Richard M. Nixon, Memoirs, (New York: Grossett and Dunlop, 1978).
“working every state committee meeting”: Ibid.
“Romney was wooden”: Tom Reed, interview with author, Oct. 11, 2014.
“close to genius”: “It was a brilliant speech.” Peter Graves, interview with author, July 19, 2014.
orange juice laced with vodka: Thomas C. Reed, The Reagan Enigma (Los Angeles: Figueroa Press, 2014), p. 97.
“Nixon had a way of converting”: Peter Graves, interview with author, July 19, 2014.
Ronald Reagan didn’t share: “Governor Reagan was thoroughly committed to a more hawkish position than anyone else in the Presidential picture.” Gladwyn Hill, “Reagan Backers Split on Outlook,” New York Times, Apr. 2, 1968.
“I’d step up the war”: RR, press conference, transcript, May 9, 1967, LCA.
“Forget it. That draft dodger”: Jonathan Eig, Ali (New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017), p. 503.
Reagan also advocated eliminating: “We’ve gone down a bad and dangerous road with peacetime conscription, and I would turn to a professional army and eliminate the draft.” RR speech, University of Colorado, Boulder, transcript, RRPL, Apr. 27, 1968.
Reagan reportedly “destroyed”: David Halberstam quoted in Lou Cannon, Governor Reagan (New York: Public Affairs, 2003), p. 260 (footnote).
“It’s almost as if a big light”: Tom Reed, interview with author, Oct. 11, 2014.
“Are you in this thing?”: Reed, The Reagan Enigma, p. 119.
“crusading on behalf of”: Gladwyn Hill, “Reagan Tour Aids G.O.P. War Chest,” New York Times, Oct. 27, 1967.
“He reserved his best acting”: Gladwyn Hill, “As a Non-Candidate, Reagan Is a Non-Slouch,” New York Times, Oct. 8, 1967.
Reagan was shocked and concerned: Edwin Meese, interview with author, Dec. 9, 2014.
“The city’s going up”: Lyn Nofziger, Nofziger (Washington, DC: Regnery, 1991), p. 70.
“Can I have your autograph?”: Edwin Meese, interview with author, Dec. 9, 2014.
He denounced militant black leaders: Tom Wicker, “Reagan Questions Motive for Warren’s Retirement,” New York Times, June 24, 1968.
“Conservatives believed that if Nixon”: Edwin Meese, interview with author, Dec. 9, 2014.
“I want a Rockefeller-Reagan”: Lyn Nofziger quoted, MCI, Mar. 6, 2003, p. 11.
He’d already rejected a Nixon-Reagan: RR and Eisenhower discussed a Nixon-Reagan ticket at a March 11, 1968, meeting between the two in Palm Springs. “Reagan Bars Race for Vice President,” New York Times, Mar. 13, 1968, p. 34.
“It is a great tragedy”: RR, letter to Patti Davis, June 5, 1968, reprinted in Kathy Randall Davis, But What’s He REALLY Like? (Menlo Park, CA: Pacific Coast Publishing, 1970), p. 80.
“I saw him the day”: Tom Reed, interview with author, Oct. 11, 2014.
Barry Goldwater urged him: “Ron and I went to see Barry in Phoenix and he said, ‘You’ve got to support Nixon.’” Ibid.
had already sunk $366,000: “The actual 1968 spending was $366,000.” Cannon, Governor Reagan, p. 265 (footnote).
“raised bundles of money”: Ibid., p. 267.
“Not this year, Ron”: Charlie Dent, quoted in Reed, The Reagan Enigma, p. 171.
“He had their hearts”: Stuart Spencer, interview with author, July 21, 2014.
“It was the greatest relief”: MI, Mar. 29, 1988, p. 185; “Nancy and I were the two most relieved people in the world.” MI, Jan. 9, 1989, p. 249.
TWENTY-FIVE: THE CONSERVATION GOVERNOR
“the Batman of politics”: Gladwyn Hill, “Reagan Assessed as Being ‘the Batman of Politics,’” New York Times, July 23, 1967.
the “Teflon President”: The nickname is credited to congresswoman Patricia Schroeder in 1983; “Nothing Stuck to ‘Teflon President,’” USA Today, June 6, 2004.
“programs that reward people”: RR, inauguration speech, Jan. 4, 1971, transcript, “The Presidency Project,” UC-Santa Barbara; Wallace Turner, “Reagan, Heckled, Pledges Welfare Reform,” New York Times, Jan. 5, 1971.
“the truly needy as opposed”: Edwin Meese, confidential memo, Aug. 4, 1970 (Meese Papers, Hoover Institution, Stanford University).
The “welfare monster”: RR, interview, California Journal, Dec. 16, 1970.
as “criminal anarchists”: RR, State of the State message to a joint session of the CA legislature, Jan. 7, 1969.
“We are called materialistic”: RR quoted in Bob Colacello, Ronnie and Nancy (New York: Warner Bros., 2004), p. 401.
“provide for the expulsion”: RR, State of the State, Jan. 7, 1969.
“Observe the Rules or Get Out”: “He believed that students should obey the rules—or get out.” Tom Reed, interview with author, Oct. 11, 2014.
“In the sixties”: Ibid.
“cowardly little bums”: RR, quoted in Lou Cannon, Governor Reagan (New York: Public Affairs, 2003), p. 293.
“If it takes a bloodbath”: RR, address to California Council of Growers, Yosemite National Park, Apr. 7, 1970.
“determined to get something done”: Edwin Meese, interview with author, Dec. 9, 2014.
“our number one priority”: RR, quoted in Anthony C. Beilenson, Looking Back: A Memoir (Privately printed, 2012), p. 145; “My most important priority was welfare reform.” AAL, p. 188.
“able-bodied people”: AAL, p. 188.
“Reagan wasn’t interested”: George Steffes, interview with author, July 17, 2014.
“one couple . . . earned more”: AAL, p. 189.
“He was very hands-on”: George Steffes, interview with author, July 17, 2014.
“He knew when to back off”: Stuart Spencer, interview with author, July 21, 2014.
“Getting the governor together”: Ken Hall, interview with author, July 17, 2014.
“We thought we had a chance”: Ibid.
“a know-nothing”: Cannon, Governor Reagan, p. 230.
“The governor got plenty accomplished”: William Bagley, interview with author, Aug. 12, 2014.
“Conservationists were absolutely appalled”: “When he came into office they were up in arms.” Kirk West, interview with aut
hor, July 17, 2014.
“He decided to see the Minarets”: Ed Meese, interview with author, Dec. 9, 2014.
“waving a white hat”: George Skelton, “The Man Who Saved the Sierra,” Los Angeles Times, July 28, 1997.
“Because such a crossing”: RR, speech, Minarets Summit, quoted in Los Angeles Times, June 28, 1972.
“As a result, he’d only”: “His greatest weakness was that he didn’t seek out different opinions.” George Steffes interview with author, July 17, 2014.
“I am absolutely convinced”: Bill Boyarsky, Ronald Reagan: His Life and Times (New York: Random House, 1981), p. 161.
“once-in-a-lifetime opportunity”: RR, speech, California Newspaper Publishers Association, Feb. 8, 1973.
“an economic war”: Robert Moretti, quoted in Cannon, Governor Reagan, p. 371.
“No, and he shouldn’t try”: RR, interview, KTVU-TV, Oakland, CA, Oct. 26, 1973.
“Let’s work everything out”: Nicole Woolsey Biggart, “Management Style as Strategic Interaction: The Case of Governor Ronald Reagan,” Journal of Applied Behavioral Sciences, 1981, p. 305.
“There is a definite sickness”: George Skelton, “Reagan Setbacks: Is Political Grip Failing?” Los Angeles Times, Feb. 5, 1974.
“It’s a partisan witch hunt”: “Gov. Reagan Urges Support of President,” Atlanta Daily World, Apr. 3, 1972.
That same week: RR, speech to Young Republicans, Washington, DC, Mar. 30, 1973 ; “Chotiner Says Nixon Aides Should Have Come Forward,” Washington Post, Apr. 1, 1973.
“I can’t say publicly”: RR, letter to Rev. B. H. Cleaver, May 24, 1973, in AAL, p. 94.
“a truthful man”: RR, press conference, Sacramento, in Daily Review, Mar. 28, 1973.
“well-meaning individuals”: RR, quoted by John Chancellor, NBC News, May 2, 1973.
“no worse than double parkers”: RR, quoted in Rick Perlstein, The Invisible Bridge (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2014), p. 160.
Even when Nixon admitted: Seymour Hersh, “President Linked to Taps on Aides,” New York Times, May 16, 1973; “Nixon Concedes Wide Net,” New York Times, May 23, 1973.
“not criminal, just illegal”: RR, quoted in United Press International, June 5, 1973; “Reagan: Watergate Spies No Criminals,” Washington Post, May 2, 1973.
“About ninety percent of everything”: RR, quoted in Bill Anderson, “Governors Split—Just on Essentials,” Chicago Tribune, June 6, 1973.
“the cacophony of seditious drivel”: Spiro Agnew, quoted in John R. Coyne, The Impudent Snobs: Agnew vs. the Intellectual Establishment (New Rochelle, NY: Arlington House, 1972), p. 292.
“They’d become friends”: Ed Meese, interview with author, Dec. 9, 2014.
“I have known Ted Agnew”: RR, quoted in David Broder, “GOP Left Speechless by Agnew Headlines,” Washington Post, Aug. 8, 1973.
April 1973 Gallup poll: “Remembering Spiro Agnew,” MacNeil-Lehrer Newshour, PBS, Sept. 18, 1996.
“Should Mr. Agnew somehow”: R. W. Apple Jr., “Watergate and 1976,” New York Times, May 21, 1973.
“To conservatives,” says Jeffrey Bell: Jeffrey Bell, interview with author, Dec. 19, 2013.
Holmes Tuttle and Justin Dart: “I did my best, and so did Mr. Dart, to convince Nixon.” Holmes Tuttle, quoted in “The Kitchen Cabinet: Four California Citizen Advisors of Ronald Reagan,” UCLA Center for Oral History Research, 1983, p. 146.
being “pretty shallow”: Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger, conversation, Oval Office, Nov. 17, 1971; David Corn, “Nixon on Tape: Reagan was ‘Shallow’ and of ‘Limited Mental Capacity,’ ” Mother Jones, Nov. 15, 2007; Wallace Turner, “Choice of Reagan Called Unlikely,” New York Times, Oct. 11, 1973.
surrogate—“a caretaker”: RR, quoted in Peter Goldman, “Ready on the Right,” Newsweek, Mar. 24, 1975, p. 20.
TWENTY-SIX: A HORSE OF A DIFFERENT COLOR
“not criminals at heart”: Lou Cannon, Governor Reagan (New York: Public Affairs, 2003), p. 385.
“Let’s give him the benefit”: Peter Hannaford, interview with author, July 18, 2014.
“The governor was firmly”: Edwin Meese, interview with author, Dec. 9, 2014.
Ford promised him: Craig Shirley, Reagan’s Revolution (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2005), p. 20.
“One term may not be enough”: Peter Hannaford, interview with author, July 18, 2014.
“he felt a sense of disappointment”: Peter Hannaford, The Reagans: A Political Portrait (New York: Coward-McCann, 1983), p. 50.
was “fairly smashed”: Peter Hannaford, interview with author, July 18, 2014.
“Reagan didn’t say much”: John Sears, interview with author, Jan. 30, 2014.
“Can you imagine Jerry Ford”: Attributed to Richard Nixon in a Newsweek article and reported blindly in Jules Witcover, Marathon: The Pursuit of the Presidency, 1972–1976 (New York: Viking, 1977), p. 37.
“Everybody was in a state”: Jeffrey Bell, interview with author, Dec. 19, 2013.
“He didn’t have any”: Peter Hannaford, interview with author, July 18, 2014.
“I think we ought”: Walter Cronkite, quoted in Yanek Mieczkowski, Gerald Ford and the Challenges of the 1970s (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 2005), p. 21.
Dutch Reagan had even broadcast: “I’d once broadcast a University of Michigan football game in which he played.” AAL, p. 200.
“We’ve got to give”: Ibid.
“It is a tragedy”: Modesto Bee, Aug. 9, 1974.
“Ford isn’t up to the job”: John Sears, interview with author, Jan. 30, 2014.
He wasn’t, but he told: “He told Hartmann he would take it if Ford chose him, but he didn’t want it.” Jim Lake, interview with author, Feb. 25, 2014.
a congressman from Maryland: Robert Bauman, quoted in James Walcott, “Ronald Reagan: The Great Orange Hope,” Village Voice, Feb. 24, 1975.
Polls showed that most Americans: “Gerald Ford: Domestic Affairs,” Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of VA, http://millercenter.org/president/biography/ford-domestic-affairs.
“I support [Ford]”: RR, quoted in Rick Perlstein, The Invisible Bridge (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2014), p. 285.
“Rockefeller and Ford are not”: Minutes of the ACU conference, quoted in Shirley, Reagan’s Revolution, p. 30.
“Those who fought and served”: Peter Hannaford, interview with author, July 18, 2014.
“The governor felt that the deficit”: Edwin Meese, interview with author, Dec. 9, 2014.
“It would be ridiculous”: “Politicians: Citizen Reagan,” Newsweek, Jan. 6, 1975.
“I think he was tired”: Lyn Nofziger, Nofziger (Washington, DC: Regnery, 1991), p. 154.
“dying to return to Los Angeles”: NR/MT, p. 179.
“think something out”: “There’s no better place to do it than Rancho del Cielo.” AAL, p. 195.
“Hell, I can’t afford”: Pete Hannaford, interview with author, July 18, 2014.
“You’d be joining a ship”: “I told him not to take it.” John Sears, interview with author, Jan. 30, 2014.
“the state of the Union”: Gerald R. Ford, State of the Union address, Jan. 15, 1975, transcript at infoplease.com.
“The producer thinks”: Efrem Zimbalist Jr., quoted in Peter Hannaford, interview with author, July 18, 2014.
“With radio, you don’t outlive”: Peter Hannaford, interview with author, July 18, 2014; “People will tire of me on television. They won’t tire of me on the radio.” RR, quoted in Mike Deaver, interview, July 1, 2002, LCA.
James S. Copley, and many: Joseph Trento, The Secret History of the CIA (New York: Basic Books, 2005).
The first few shows: Hannaford, The Reagans, p. 59.
“If you’ve had the experience”: RR, radio broadcasts, tape 75-01/track 4, recorded Jan. 8, 1975, Hoover Ins
titution, Stanford University.
“If you’re not familiar”: Ibid., tape 75-01/track 3, Hoover Institution.
“the lingering mysteries”: Bob Lancaster, “Great Polish Bisexual Frogs Mystery,” Boca Raton News, July 15, 1974.
“abandoned his pledge”: RR, radio broadcast, tape 75-03/ track 1, recorded Feb. 14, 1975, Hoover Institution.
“a new and revitalized”: RR, address to the Conservative Political Action Conference, Associated Press, Feb. 15, 1975.
“We’re completely different”: R. W. Apple Jr., “Reagan on the Road: Easy Smile and Hard Rhetoric,” New York Times, Feb. 20, 1975.
“You’re a Republican”: Cannon, Governor Reagan, p. 401; Newsweek, Mar. 24, 1975.
“He’d come out and visit”: Peter Hannaford, interview with author, July 18, 2014.
He even recruited Jesse Helms: Charlie Black, interview with author, Feb. 25, 2014.
“I thought the party”: Jeffrey Bell, interview with author, Dec. 19, 2013.
“if voters saw Reagan”: John Sears, interview with author, Jan. 30, 2014.
“would never stand for it”: “It wasn’t her idea image-wise or what a hero would do.” Ibid.
“If I were to run for president”: Peter Hannaford, interview with author, July 18, 2014.
“He’s running,” Mike Deaver: Deaver quoted in Jim Lake, interview with author, Feb. 25, 2014.
“signed by 113 of 145”: “Ready on the Right,” Newsweek, Mar. 24, 1975.
“Paul was a respected senator”: John Sears, interview with author, Jan. 30, 2014.
a convoluted letter: RR, to Paul Laxalt, letter, July 14, 1975, RRPL, personal papers.
“The purpose of this committee”: Paul Laxalt, prepared speech, quoted in Shirley, Reagan’s Revolution, p. 75.
“truly alarming increase”: Gerald M. Ford, “Address Before a Joint Session of the California State Legislature,” Sept. 5, 1975, transcript, the American Presidency Project, UC–Santa Barbara.
“This country is a mess!”: Lynette Fromme, quoted in Perlstein, Invisible Bridge, p. 498.
“The notion that Ronald Reagan”: James Reston, “Political Adventures,” New York Times, Sept. 7, 1975.
