Reagan Ronald - Reaganś revolution : the untold story of the campaign that started it all

REAGANS
REVOLUTION

THE UNTOLD STORY OF THE
CAMPAIGN THAT STARTED IT ALL

CRAIG SHIRLEY

Copyright 2005 by Craig Shirley

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or otherexcept for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Quotations from AMERICAN JOURNAL: THE EVENTS OF 1976 by Elizabeth Drew, copyright 1976, 1977 by Elizabeth Drew. Used by permission of Random House, Inc.

Quotations from MARATHON: THE PURSUIT OF THE PRESIDENCY by Jules Witcover, copyright 1977 by Jules Witcover. Used by permission of Viking Penguin, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Nelson Current, a subsidiary of Thomas Nelson, Inc.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Shirley, Craig.

Reagan's revolution : the untold story of the campaign that started it all / Craig Shirley.
p. cm.
ISBN 0-7852-6049-8

1. PresidentsUnited StatesElection1980. 2. United StatesPolitics and government 19771981. 3. Reagan, Ronald. 4. Political campaignsUnited StatesHistory 20th century. 5. Presidential candidates--United StatesBiography. 6. Presidents United StatesBiography. I. Title.

E875.S46 2005
324.973'0926--dc22

2004026809

Printed in the United States of America

05 06 07 08 09 QW 5 4 3 2 1

CONTENTS

CITIZENS FOR REAGAN

MARTIN ANDERSON: policy advisor

ERNIE ANGELO: Texas Campaign Co-Chairman

RAY BARNHART: Texas Campaign Co-Chairman

JEFF BELL: Research Director

CHARLIE BLACK: Midwest Field Director

MORTON BLACKWELL: state convention tactician; conservative activist

ANDY CARTER: Field Director

RON DEAR: Texas delegates for Reagan Chairman

MICHAEL DEAVER: public relations

DON DEVINE: state convention tactician; conservative activist

BRUCE EBERLE: direct mail strategist

TOM ELLIS: chief political strategist in North Carolina

ARTHUR FINKELSTEIN: North Carolina and Texas tactician

HUGH GREGG: New Hampshire Campaign Chairman and former

Governor

PETER HANNAFORD: public relations

DAVID KEENE: Southern Field Director

JIM LAKE: New Hampshire Campaign Director; Communications

Director

PAUL LAXALT: Nevada Senator; Campaign Chairman

EDWIN MEESE: Kitchen Cabinet; joined campaign, Summer 1976

BILLY MOUNGER: Reagan Chairman, Mississippi

LYN NOFZIGER: Press Secretary; California Campaign Chairman;

Convention Manager

CHARLES PICKERING: incoming State Chairman, Mississippi

CLARKE REED: Mississippi State Republican Chairman

NANCY REYNOLDS: personal advance aide to the Reagans

RICHARD SCHWEIKER: Pennsylvania Senator; running mate

JOHN SEARS: Campaign Manager

LOREN SMITH: General Counsel

ROGER STONE: Youth for Reagan

TOMMY THOMAS: Florida Campaign Chairman

BOB WALKER: campaign strategist; conservative activist

FRANK WHETSTONE: Western Field Director

DICK WIRTHLIN: pollster

CARTER WRENN: North Carolina strategist

PRESIDENT FORD COMMITTEE

JAMES BAKER: Deputy Chairman of Delegate Operations

HOWARD BO CALLAWAY: Campaign Chairman, resigned March 1976

HARRY DENT: senior advisor; Southern strategist

PETER KAYE: Press Secretary, resigned August 1976

DREW LEWIS: Pennsylvania Chairman

ROGERS ROG C.B. MORTON: Campaign Chairman, April to August

1976

BOB MOSBACHER: Finance Director, beginning November 1975

DAVID PACKARD: Finance Director, resigned November 1975

STUART SPENCER: Deputy Chairman for Political Affairs

BOB TEETER: Deputy Chairman for Research

BOB VISSER: General Counsel

CLIFF WHITE: senior advisor

FORD ADMINISTRATION

DICK CHENEY: Deputy Chief of Staff; Chief of Staff, beginning

November 1975

ROBERT HARTMANN: counselor to the President

HENRY KISSINGER: Secretary of State

RON NESSEN: Press Secretary

NELSON ROCKEFELLER: Vice President of the United States

DONALD RUMSFELD: Chief of Staff; Secretary of Defense, beginning

November 1975

CONSERVATIVE AND GOP LEADERS

JIM BUCKLEY: New York Senator; conservative leader

FRANK DONATELLI: Executive Director, Young Americans for Freedom

BARRY GOLDWATER: Arizona Senator, 1964 Republican Presidential

nominee

STAN EVANS: Chairman, American Conservative Union

JESSE HELMS: North Carolina Senator; North Carolina Reagan

Campaign Chairman

EDDIE MAHE: Executive Director, Republican National Committee

RICHARD ROSEY ROSENBAUM: New York State Republican Chairman

MELDRIM THOMSON: New Hampshire Governor; Reagan supporter

RICHARD VIGUERIE: direct mail strategist; conservative activist

JOURNALISTS

FRED BARNES: political reporter, Washington Star

WILLIAM F. BUCKLEY: editor, National Review

LOU CANNON: political reporter, Washington Post

ROWLAND EVANS, BOB NOVAK: syndicated columnists

WILLIAM LOEB: publisher, Manchester Union-Leader

FRANK REYNOLDS: ABC News correspondent

WILLIAM RUSHER: author, The Making of the New Majority Party,

columnist

WILLIAM SAFIRE: columnist, New York Times

JULES WITCOVER: political reporter, Washington Post

GEORGE WILL: syndicated columnist, Newsweek contributor

TOM WINTER, ALLAN RYSKIND: co-editors, Human Events

FOREWORD
by Fred Barnes

T he Presidential race of 1976 brought forth two new political stars, but the press was excited about only one of them. This was Jimmy Carter, the peanut farmer who emerged spectacularly in the Presidential primaries, won the Democratic nomination with ease, and captured the White House by defeating Americas only unelected President, Gerald Ford.

Carter was a Southern pragmatist with moderate to liberal views and a crew of smart, young political advisers. He was seen by reporters and commentators not only as the savior of the Democratic Party, but as a political heavyweight capable of reshaping public policy in creative ways. Carter was the future, the vanguard of a progressive future.

The other star was Ronald Reagan, the former California Governor and conservative whose spirited challenge of Ford for the Republican Presidential nomination was viewed as his swan song. At sixty-five, his political career was over. He represented the past.

Such was the conventional political wisdom in 1976. And seldom has the press been so wrong. True, Carter left his mark on the nation, mostly by weakening it. The economy during his Presidency was beset by a new phenomenon called stagflationhigh inflation and unemployment at the same timethat mystified Carter. And he was unable to slow the march of Soviet Communism around the world. But Carter had a political legacy, an inadvertent one. He paved the way for Ronald Reagan to be elected President and become the most event-making leader of the second half of the twentieth century.

More important, of course, was what Reagan himself achieved in 1976. While losing, he laid the foundation for his successful capture of the Presidency four years later. This is what Craig Shirley explains with such insight and thoroughness in Reagans Revolution. Its a story thats never been fully told before.