Read Online Rendezvous with Destiny: Ronald Reagan and the Campaign that Changed America by Craig Shirley - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Craig Shirley
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the Carter Recession in two years, and his work from 1981 to 1989 caused the collapse of the Soviet threat in 1991, and with it the triumph of freedom over Communism.
Tributes poured in from Congress when Reagan died, but one of the most gracious and eloquent came from Ted Kennedy. The old liberal spoke of Reagan's conservatism, his love of country, and his convictions, with no bitterness or rancor, but with a genuine affection for the man. Kennedy gave Reagan all the credit as “the president who won the Cold War,” and added, “His deepest convictions were matters of heart and mind and spirit—and on them, he was no actor at all.” 22
It spoke very well of Reagan also that his first wife, Jane Wyman, admitted she had voted for him gladly in 1980 and 1984, and that when he died, she broke her silence of more than fifty years to say, “America has lost a great president and a great, kind and gentle man .” 23
Indeed, Reagan was one of the most incredibly relaxed men in politics. As reporters watched him doing remote TV interviews one sweltering day in a Los Angeles studio in 1980, he suddenly realized that the reporters couldn't hear the broadcasters, only him. Between interviews, a mischievous smile crossed Reagan's face and he began calling an imaginary baseball game, but with a political twist: “And now, Teddy Kennedy is coming to the plate. Kennedy has hit for five out of eight in the primaries today. Kennedy looks loose.” The people in the studio laughed. 24 During his mock debate with David Stockman in 1980 to prepare for the real debate with John Anderson, Stockman was pummeling Reagan over the environment when Reagan retorted, “Well, John, sounds like I better get a gas mask!” 25
Still, Reagan, like all men, was flawed. He had a temper, although it mellowed in later years. Once as governor, speaking to a political ally who had betrayed him, he pointed to a baseball bat on display in his office and said, “I should have shoved it up your ass and broken it off!” 26 Actor Arthur Kennedy, an old friend, said the Gipper's anger “flares like magnesium powder and disappears in a cloud of smoke.” 27
Such foibles do not by any means diminish Reagan's significance or, indeed, greatness. His old friend Lyn Nofziger explained it better than anybody: “Ourproblem is we are trying to make a saint out of a man who certainly wasn't perfect. But he was a unique president. He believed in three things: God, the American people and himself. And that's kind of unique.” 28
P HIL A LEXANDER, A YOUNG aide on the 1976 and 1980 campaigns, was at Belmont race track in New York the day Reagan died, June 5, 2004. Reagan's death was announced over the public address system and the crowd of unruly thousands was asked to observe one minute of silence in remembrance of the Gipper.
Alexander was astonished when the tough and cynical New Yorkers did just that. 29
Alexander wasn't the only young American to be drawn to Reagan. In the 1980 election he received a plurality of voters under the age of thirty, and in 1984 he received more than 60 percent of the under-thirty vote. When he left office in January 1989, Reagan's overall approval rating was 68 percent, making him the most popular president at the end of his term since the Second World War, more popular even than the beloved Ike. Among African Americans he drew 40 percent support, amazing for a post–New Deal Republican. But most incredible was his approval rating among voters under thirty—a stunning 85 percent. 30
In 1976 an eleven-year-old Minnesota boy, John McConnell, heard that his hero, Ronald Reagan, was coming to St. Paul. He badgered his mother into allowing his twenty-year-old brother to drive him 250 miles to see Reagan, and giving them twenty dollars to cover the cost of gas and a meal. Young McConnell was so nervous when he met Reagan that he dropped his camera, but he shook Reagan's hand and got a treasured autograph. McConnell went on
Tributes poured in from Congress when Reagan died, but one of the most gracious and eloquent came from Ted Kennedy. The old liberal spoke of Reagan's conservatism, his love of country, and his convictions, with no bitterness or rancor, but with a genuine affection for the man. Kennedy gave Reagan all the credit as “the president who won the Cold War,” and added, “His deepest convictions were matters of heart and mind and spirit—and on them, he was no actor at all.” 22
It spoke very well of Reagan also that his first wife, Jane Wyman, admitted she had voted for him gladly in 1980 and 1984, and that when he died, she broke her silence of more than fifty years to say, “America has lost a great president and a great, kind and gentle man .” 23
Indeed, Reagan was one of the most incredibly relaxed men in politics. As reporters watched him doing remote TV interviews one sweltering day in a Los Angeles studio in 1980, he suddenly realized that the reporters couldn't hear the broadcasters, only him. Between interviews, a mischievous smile crossed Reagan's face and he began calling an imaginary baseball game, but with a political twist: “And now, Teddy Kennedy is coming to the plate. Kennedy has hit for five out of eight in the primaries today. Kennedy looks loose.” The people in the studio laughed. 24 During his mock debate with David Stockman in 1980 to prepare for the real debate with John Anderson, Stockman was pummeling Reagan over the environment when Reagan retorted, “Well, John, sounds like I better get a gas mask!” 25
Still, Reagan, like all men, was flawed. He had a temper, although it mellowed in later years. Once as governor, speaking to a political ally who had betrayed him, he pointed to a baseball bat on display in his office and said, “I should have shoved it up your ass and broken it off!” 26 Actor Arthur Kennedy, an old friend, said the Gipper's anger “flares like magnesium powder and disappears in a cloud of smoke.” 27
Such foibles do not by any means diminish Reagan's significance or, indeed, greatness. His old friend Lyn Nofziger explained it better than anybody: “Ourproblem is we are trying to make a saint out of a man who certainly wasn't perfect. But he was a unique president. He believed in three things: God, the American people and himself. And that's kind of unique.” 28
P HIL A LEXANDER, A YOUNG aide on the 1976 and 1980 campaigns, was at Belmont race track in New York the day Reagan died, June 5, 2004. Reagan's death was announced over the public address system and the crowd of unruly thousands was asked to observe one minute of silence in remembrance of the Gipper.
Alexander was astonished when the tough and cynical New Yorkers did just that. 29
Alexander wasn't the only young American to be drawn to Reagan. In the 1980 election he received a plurality of voters under the age of thirty, and in 1984 he received more than 60 percent of the under-thirty vote. When he left office in January 1989, Reagan's overall approval rating was 68 percent, making him the most popular president at the end of his term since the Second World War, more popular even than the beloved Ike. Among African Americans he drew 40 percent support, amazing for a post–New Deal Republican. But most incredible was his approval rating among voters under thirty—a stunning 85 percent. 30
In 1976 an eleven-year-old Minnesota boy, John McConnell, heard that his hero, Ronald Reagan, was coming to St. Paul. He badgered his mother into allowing his twenty-year-old brother to drive him 250 miles to see Reagan, and giving them twenty dollars to cover the cost of gas and a meal. Young McConnell was so nervous when he met Reagan that he dropped his camera, but he shook Reagan's hand and got a treasured autograph. McConnell went on
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