White House Ghosts: Presidents and Their Speechwriters
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“I was not effective”: Author interview with Andrews.
“Emotions ran high”: John Coyne, Fall In and Cheer (New York: Doubleday & Co., 1979), 39.
A few minutes before 6:30 pm: Price, With Nixon, 323.
“We need a resignation speech”: Ibid., 324.
“want Price to write”: Nixon, RN, 1057.
Price started working: Price, With Nixon, 327–28; Bob Woodward, and Carl Bernstein, The Final Days (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1976), 378.
As he wrote: Price, With Nixon, 328–29.
Buchanan banged his clenched: Woodward and Bernstein, Final Days, 340.
Saturday brought word: Price, With Nixon, 330–32; author interview with Price.
Nixon had viewed: Woodward and Bernstein, Final Days, 37–38.
The two men met on Sunday: Price, With Nixon, 332–33.
Sitting in his Executive Office Building: Nixon, RN, 1067.
“As I believe you know”: Price, With Nixon, 339–40.
They worked down the hall: Ibid., 341.
“We wander from office”: Coyne, Fall In and Cheer, 31.
Safire wandered through: Price, With Nixon, 346–47.
“Look”: Author interview with John Coyne.
7. “GO BACK AND GIVE ME ONE SPEECH, NOT TWO SPEECHES”
As the Nixon administration: Author interview with Robert Orben, 230 And Ford was scheduled: Gerald Ford, A Time to Heal: The Autobiography of Gerald R. Ford (New York: Harper & Row, 1979), 25.
On the afternoon of August 5: The account of Orben and Hartmann on August 5 and Orben’s first meeting with Ford are drawn from the author’s interview with Orben.
“Let me assure”: Ford, A Time, 119.
Watching the news: Author interview with Orben.
“How much time”: Robert T. Hartmann, Palace Politics: An Inside Account of the Ford Years (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1980), 151.
That appointment: Ford, A Time, 118.
“brusque”: Ibid., 1.
He proudly kept: John Hersey, The President: A minute-by-minute account of a week in the life of Gerald Ford (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1975), 116.
“Beneath that was a very”: Author interview with Jack Marsh.
“Bob Hartmann may have”: Sally Quinn, “The In (Fighting), Out (Bursts), Up (Swings), Down (Slides), and Other Times of R. T. Hartmann, Presidential Adviser,” The Washington Post, November 24, 1974.
“Sweet Ol’ Bob”: Alexander M. Haig, Jr., Inner Circles: How America Changed the World (New York: Warner Books, 1992), 511.
“suspicious of everyone”: Ford, A Time, 6.
“You don’t suspect”: Ibid., 148.
“an uncanny ability”: Ibid., 32.
At three o’clock: Hartmann, Palace Politics, 153.
“The Bible upon which”: Hartmann makes no mention of this potential opening in his Palace Politics. That account has him writing the notes and then typing up the speech almost in its final form. The typed page with the opening verse from the Bible is in Hartmann’s “8/9/74—Oath of Office” folder in the Gerald R. Ford Library. It makes no sense that he would write out the whole speech and then make a fresh start; rather, it seems safe to assume that the Bible opening was an aborted first go.
“It is difficult”: Hartmann, Palace Politics, 160n.
“didn’t struggle”: Ibid., 154, 159.
after almost eight hundred days: “Time for Healing,” Time, August 19, 1974.
Arriving late: John Coyne, Fall In and Cheer (New York: Doubleday & Co., 1979), 102.
Newly minted: Fred Barnes, “Nixon Holdovers, Ford Aides at Odds,” Washington Star, August 30, 1974.
Orben would ask if: Author interview with Orben.
Another new speechwriter: Hartmann, Palace Politics, 106.
“an older man”: Coyne, Fall In, 90.
At Christmastime: Note from Paul Theis to the White House Telephone Operators, undated, “Dec. 1974 (2)” folder, Theis and Orben Files, Gerald Ford Library.
“Hiya fellas!”: Author interview with John Casserly.
The other new scribe: Author interview with Kaye Pullen, 236 “is the best of the old speechwriters”: Robert Hartmann memo to President Ford, December 9, 1974, “Editorial and speechwriting staff—reorganization” folder, Hartmann Papers, Gerald Ford Library.
The Atlantic City reference: John Robert Greene, The Presidency of Gerald R. Ford (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1995), 13.
Bakshian liked the fact: Aram Bakshian oral history interview, University of Virginia, Miller Center of Public Affairs, January 14, 2002, 8.
“Ford was not oratorical”: Author interview with Marsh.
“His approach to a speech”: Hartmann, Palace Politics, 384.
“Ford, he told us”: Coyne, Fall In, 90.
“Kids in college today”: Hartmann, Palace Politics, 218.
The press called the OMB: Carol Gelderman, All the President’s Words: The Bully Pulpit and the Creation of the Virtual Presidency (New York: Walker & Co., 1997), 126–27.
“The Praetorian pattern”: Hartmann, Palace Politics, 219.
Ford held his first presidential: Ford, A Time, 158.
“Mr. President, you’ll have to expect”: Ibid., 161.
“What’s the rush”: Hartmann, Palace Politics, 264.
St. John’s: Ford, A Time, 175; Hartmann, Palace Politics, 266.
In New York City: Author interview with Orben.
“‘Surprise’, ‘stunning’ pardon”: Weekend News Review, September 9, 1974, “9/8/74 Pardon Statement” folder, Hartmann Papers, Gerald Ford Library.
“asshole”: Barry Werth, 31 Days (New York: Doubleday, 2006), 20.
Bridling when Haig continued: Hartmann, Palace Politics, 274.
Haig thought Hartmann was: Quinn, “The In (Fighting), Out (Bursts)…”
Anti-Haig items started: Ford, A Time, 185.
“I guess this goes back”: Hersey, The President, 87.
“Throughout my political career”: Ford, A Time, 185.
“You’ll have to let me”: Haig, Inner Circles, 515–16.
Hartmann showed up: Hartmann, Palace Politics, 274.
“that nobody could say”: John Osborne, White House Watch: The Ford Years (Washington, DC: New Republic Books, 1977), 21.
The idea had sprung: Hartmann, Palace Politics, 297.
Ford and his advisers hoped: Ibid., 296–97.
There were substantive problems: “White House Issues Slew of Corrections Making Comments of Ford Inoperative,” Wall Street Journal, October 11, 1974; E. W. Kenworthy, “Ford Energy Plan: Conversion of Oil-Fired Plants to Coal Held Unrealistic by Experts,” New York Times, October 16, 1974.
Part of the problem: Rowland Evans and Robert Novak, “Mr. Ford’s Economic Program: Born Out of Chaos,” The Washington Post, October 12, 1974.
“One area in which”: Donald Rumsfeld memo to President Ford, October 15, 1974, “Staff Secretary Files—White House Operations—Staffing—Presidential Speeches” folder, Jones, Jerry Files, Gerald Ford Library.
“the Ford presidency is never”: Ron Nessen, It Sure Looks Different from the Inside (Chicago: Playboy Press, 1978), 80.
“This is the most ideal”: Bob Mead memo to Ron Nessen, January 7, 1975, “10/1/74–2/28/75” folder, Subject File Speeches, Gerald Ford Library.
Nessen thought it was: Nessen, It Sure, 81.
“Tonight, if I might”: 1/11/75 draft of 1/13/75 fireside address, undated, “1.15.75 State of the Union (4)” folder, Hartmann Papers, Gerald Ford Library.
That evening the president: Nessen, It Sure, 82–83.
Once again Rumsfeld, Nessen: Ibid., 84.
Ford’s assessment was: Ford, A Time, 232.
“it seems to me”: Ron Nessen memo to Paul Theis, January 10, 1975, “State of the Union 1.10.75–1.14.75” folder, SP 2-4.1975, Gerald Ford Library.
“There is no vision”: Ken Cole memo to Paul Theis, January 10, 1975, “State of the Union 1.10.75–1.14.75” folder, S
P 2-4.1975, Gerald Ford Library.
Ford, wearing a blazer: Nessen, It Sure, 84–85.
“Go back”: Ford, A Time, 233.
“It was a long”: Ibid.
“Now, I want to speak”: Ibid., 232.
“The President’s main problem”: Robert Orben memo to Bob Hartmann, undated, “Orben, Robert (2)” folder, Hartmann files, Gerald Ford Library.
Ford allowed John Hersey: Hersey, The President, 29–30.
“I am still profoundly”: Ibid.
“He rarely took the time”: Hartmann, Palace Politics, 384.
“I feel like a man”: John J. Casserly, The Ford White House: The Diary of a Speechwriter (Boulder: Colorado Associated University Press, 1977), 52.
Casserly and David Gergen: Ibid., 56; David Gergen, Eyewitness to Power: The Essence of Leadership, Nixon to Clinton (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000), 114.
Orben, who thought working: Author interview with Orben.
“On the House floor”: Patrick Butler, oral history interview by John Syers, June 27, 1985, “Butler, Pat” folder, William Syers Papers, Gerald Ford Library.
Butler, twenty-five, had watched: Ibid.
“pick-up team quality”: Author interview with Patrick Butler.
As the 1976 presidential campaign: Ibid.
“I had the feeling”: Bakshian UVA OH, 14.
“We’ve got a morale problem”: Paul Theis memo to Robert T. Hartmann, September 18, 1975, “Sept. 1975 (2)” folder, Theis and Orben Files, Gerald Ford Library.
“The speechwriting staff is not”: Casserly, Ford White House, 158.
“Mess privileges were invaluable”: Author interview with Butler.
Rumsfeld and Cheney had summoned: Gergen, Eyewitness, 114.
Gergen met with Ford: Aldo Beckman, “Ford Writers ‘Blocked’ by Inner-Circle Feuding,” Chicago Tribune, October 13, 1975.
“The president himself is bored”: Ibid.
Hartmann set Theis: Paul Theis memo to Robert T. Hartmann, October 13, 1975, “Theis, Paul” folder, Hartmann Papers, Gerald Ford Library.
Gergen’s draft included: Gergen, Eyewitness, 115.
Three days later: Ford, A Time, 326–27.
By the summer of 1975: James Reston, “Anybody Not Named George,” New York Times, September 14, 1975.
The next morning: Robert Hartmann memo to the president, March 16, 1976, “Editorial and speechwriting staff—reorganization” folder, Hartmann Papers, Gerald Ford Library.
“I have nothing at all”: Hartmann, Palace Politics, 394.
“People will clap”: Author interview with Orben.
In early October: Osborne, White House Watch, 262.
“An image of an”: Handwritten note from the president to Robert Hartmann, undated, “1.19.76 SOTU memo to the president” folder, Hartmann Papers, Gerald Ford Library.
“Mr. President”: Hartmann, Palace Politics, 388.
“In case you get back”: Handwritten note from the president to Robert Hartmann, undated, “1.19.76 SOTU memo to the president” folder, Hartmann Papers, Gerald Ford Library.
When Ford called a staff meeting: Hartmann, Palace Politics, 390.
“It soon became clear”: Ibid.
“it is too big”: First draft of State of the Union with president’s comments, January 12, 1976, “1.19.76 SOTU president’s comments” folder, Hartmann Papers, Gerald Ford Library.
Hartmann worked all of Wednesday: Osborne, White House Watch, 265. Hartmann has a slightly streamlined timeline in Palace Politics, but I have utilized the Osborne timeline for a couple of reasons. First, it appears that Hartmann was a main source of Osborne’s contemporaneous account: Osborne quotes Hartmann, acknowledges Hartmann as a source for the piece (“According to a source who could be none other than Hartmann, though I’m not supposed to say so”), and acknowledges in an end note that he was “accused of excessive reliance upon Bob Hartmann”; second, Hartmann’s Palace Politics timeline has a weekend-to-Wednesday gap.
Cheney had dismissed: Gergen, Eyewitness, 132.
“Roman Numeral Two”: Author interview with Orben.
The president was not expecting: Ford, A Time, 350. Gergen’s account has Cheney asking Ford for permission to produce a second draft (132), but Ford’s firsthand account is presumably more authoritative than Gergen’s secondhand.
He took the two speeches: Osborne, White House Watch, 265.
“Go through theirs”: Hartmann, Palace Politics, 391.
Ford “was unwilling”: Hartmann, Robert, oral history interview by Chase Haddix, April 9, 1991, “Hartmann, Robert—Interview with Chase Haddix” folder, Composite Oral History Accessions, Gerald Ford Library, 6.
The showdown came: Ford, A Time, 350; Osborne, White House Watch, 266.
“Damn it”: Ford, A Time, 350.
Hartmann took charge: Osborne, White House Watch, 266–67.
Cheney, who had promised: Hartmann, Palace Politics, 394.
“Insofar as I was anything”: Author interview with David Boorstin.
And while Ford publicly predicted: “Hoping to Win by Working on the Job,” Time, January 12, 1976.
Jimmy Carter had emerged: Christopher Lydon, “Jimmy Carter’s Dark-Horse Campaign Adds Gains in New England to Those in the South and Iowa,” New York Times, November 3, 1975.
Orben hired Al Parsons: Robert T. Hartmann draft memo to the president, March 16, 1976, “Editorial and speechwriting staff—reorganization” folder, Hartmann Papers, Gerald Ford Library.
He won a narrow victory: Ford, A Time, 375.
“If we consider our goal”: Bob Orben memo to Robert T. Hartmann, March 26, 1976, “Orben, Robert (2)” folder, Hartmann files, Gerald Ford Library.
“In show business”: Author interview with Orben.
Butler had not checked: Author interview with Butler.
Reagan swept all three primaries: Ford, A Time, 389.
“Very, very important”: President note to Hartmann, June 1, 1976, “7.1–5.76 Bicentennial Speeches (2)” folder, Hartmann Papers, Gerald Ford Library.
“It will be possible”: Robert T. Hartmann memo to the president, June 8, 1976, “7.1–5.76 Bicentennial Speeches—President’s notebook 2nd copy (1)” folder, Hartmann Papers, Gerald Ford Library.
“What I’m going to say next”: David Hume Kennerly, Shooter (New York: Newsweek Books, 1979), 213.
One critic: Author interview with Craig Smith.
“Jimmy Carter’s open espousal”: Kenneth A. Briggs, “Carter’s Evangelism Putting Religion into Politics for First Time Since ’60,” New York Times, April 11, 1976.
“Righteous Ford”: Kurt Ritter and Martin J. Medhurst, eds., Presidential Speechwriting: From the New Deal to the Reagan Revolution and Beyond (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2003), 151, 163.
Hartmann had received: Memo, Jim Connor to Doug Smith, June 24, 1976, Hartmann Papers, Box 185, 7.1–5.76 Bicentennial Speeches—president’s notebook (1), Gerald Ford Library.
“Excellent”: Robert Hartmann memo to the president with Ford markings, June 8, 1976, “7.1–5.76 Bicentennial Speeches (3)” folder, Hartmann Papers, Gerald Ford Library.
“To me it was a lot”: Hartmann, Palace Politics, 400–01.
“The lesson of the Bicentennial”: Robert Hartmann memo to the president, July 13, 1976, “President” folder, Hartmann Files, Gerald Ford Library.
He attached a list: Hartmann, Palace Politics, 400–01; memo, Robert T. Hartmann to the president, July 13, 1976, “President” folder, Hartmann Files, Gerald Ford Library.
“Since 1956”: Ford handwritten note, August 9, 1976, “8.19.76—Republican Nomination Acceptance Speech (4)” folder, Hartmann Papers, Gerald Ford Library.
What the speech needed: Hartmann, Palace Politics, 401.
“to reassert America’s leadership”: David Boorstin memo to Robert Hartmann, August 9, 1976, “8.19.76—Republican Nomination Acceptance Speech (4)” folder, Hartmann Papers, Gerald Ford Library. 263 Charles McCall: Char
les McCall memo to Robert Hartmann, August 9, 1976, “8.19.76—Republican Nomination Acceptance Speech (4)” folder, Hartmann Papers, Gerald Ford Library.
“take the unprecedented step”: Craig Smith memo to Robert Hartmann, August 6, 1976, “8.19.76—Republican Nomination Acceptance Speech (4)” folder, Hartmann Papers, Gerald Ford Library.
Hartmann thought this last: Hartmann, Palace Politics, 401.
Ford had rehearsed: Ford, A Time, 404–05.
Jack Marsh: Author interview with Marsh.
“And I will tell you”: Ford, A Time, 405.
“fine craftsmanship is always”: Pat Butler memo to Robert Hartmann, August 24, 1976, “Campaign speeches and debates—speechwriters recommendations” folder, Hartmann Files, Gerald Ford Library.
“a limited number”: David Boorstin memo to Robert Hartmann, August 24, 1976, “Campaign speeches and debates—speechwriters recommendations” folder, Hartmann Files, Gerald Ford Library.
George Denison: George Denison memo to Robert Hartmann, August 24, 1976, “Campaign speeches and debates—speechwriters recommendations” folder, Hartmann Files, Gerald Ford Library.
“one major speech a week”: Bob Orben memo to Robert T. Hartmann, August 24, 1976, “Campaign speeches and debates—speechwriters recommendations” folder, Hartmann Files, Gerald Ford Library.
“As I recall: Author interview with Butler.
“Ford was in real control”: Syers-Butler OH.
Ford was scheduled to speak: Author interview with Butler.
“You’re on such a treadmill”: Author interview with Orben.
8. “DON’T GIVE ANY EXPLANATION. JUST SAY I CANCELLED THE DAMN SPEECH”
Patrick Anderson: “Waltzing into Office,” Time, January 31, 1977.
his precise, right-slanting handwriting: Handwritten inaugural draft, undated, “[Inaugural Speech Drafts—Notes and Suggestions] [1]” folder, Office of Staff Secretary, Jimmy Carter Library.
Carter had written: Ibid.
He was rearranging: “Waltzing into Office.”
“Carter thinks in lists”: James Fallows, “The Passionless Presidency, ” The Atlantic (May 1979).
“prepare simple list”: Handwritten note from Carter to Jim Fallows, undated, “Speeches—Preparation of (Guidance) 1/1/77–5/31/80” folder, Speechwriters, Subject File, Jimmy Carter Library.
“only a few sentences”: “Waltzing into Office.”