America's Greatest 20th Century Presidents (29 page)

While Reagan was still learning how to achieve parts of his political agenda, he continued to work the media masterfully. In 1968, midway through his first term, he entertained the idea of running for President.  Reagan floated his name as a possible compromise candidate if the Republicans could not decide on a nominee. When the GOP selected Richard Nixon, however, Reagan withdrew his name from consideration.

Reagan's primary success in his first term came through his recurrent use of force to quell protesters on state colleges.  He used similar harsh action to quiet the Black Panther Movement. Candidate Reagan had promised to restore law and order among the protesters, and Governor Reagan would make good on that promise in 1969, using police to break up the “People’s Park Protests” in Berkeley. Some would criticize Reagan for the violence that came with breaking up the protests. With protests against the Vietnam War flaring the following year, Reagan remained defiant about quelling protests, telling the press there would be “no more appeasement.”

In 1970, Reagan sought reelection, despite the minimal achievements of his first term.  Without a conservative revolution to show for, Reagan's appeal was both broadened and limited, depending on which side of the aisle viewers sat.  Liberals realized he wasn't the evildoer they suspected, while conservatives were disappointed.  Regardless, Reagan won reelection with 53% of the vote, a smaller margin than he had won in 1966.

Reagan had devoted much of his reelection campaign to welfare reform.  He contended that welfare was frequently given to people who didn't need it, while it failed to help those who did. In 1966 candidate Reagan had famously promised "to send the welfare bums back to work”, and 5 years later, Reagan passed the Welfare Reform Act of 1971, which reduced California's welfare rolls significantly while increasing the benefits of the recipients who were still eligible. 

The Welfare Reform Act proved to be the high point of the Reagan governorship.  Leaving office in 1975, Reagan left behind a decidedly mixed record.  His promise to drastically reduce the size of government had not come true; he had, however, restored “law and order” in California and reduced welfare dependency.  With the growing Christian Right movement, Reagan also had a mixed record: he legalized some abortions in his state and signed the nation's first no-fault divorce law.

In spite of his mixed record, the charismatic Reagan remained the poster child of American conservatism.  With that in mind, Reagan set his sights on the White House.

Chapter 4: Presidential Politics, 1976-1980

Challenging Gerald Ford in 1976

Reagan had garnered presidential hopes since the last years of his governorship, and with Richard Nixon winning a landslide reelection campaign in 1972, Reagan was gearing up to take on the open Republican primary in 1976.

Unbeknownst to everyone, however, Nixon’s presidency unraveled in stunning fashion, beginning with events before his reelection. On the night of June 17, 1972, a security guard making the rounds at the Watergate complex in Washington D.C. discovered tape on several door latches, meant to keep the doors unlocked. The guard removed the tape only to find it there again a short time later. The security guard called the police, who found five men inside the office of the Democratic National Committee. What initially seemed like a routine burglary case was actually the beginning of one of the most bizarre scandals in American history.

Investigators immediately discovered that the men were bugging the office phones, but they were amazed to find that the five men all had connections to the Committee to Re-elect the President (CReeP). One of them, James McCord, was a former CIA employee who was on CReeP’s payroll. Interrogation of the burglars and the discovery of phone numbers also exposed their connections to G. Gordon Libby and E. Howard Hunt, personal aides to President Nixon himself. When Washington Post reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, relying on a confidential source nicknamed “Deep Throat,” reported that Libby and Howard were guiding the burglars with walkie-talkies, it appeared the burglary went all the way up to the White House.

By August 1974, it was clear that Nixon was on his way to being impeached and convicted. Before being forcibly removed, Nixon became the first President to resign from office on August 8, 1974. Nixon had been indicted earlier in 1974, but new President Gerald Ford controversially pardoned him in September. 40 government officials who worked in the White House, F.B.I., C.I.A. and Justice Department were eventually indicted for participating in or covering up the Watergate burglaries.

Watergate and Nixon's resignation threw Reagan's plan into disarray.  Gerald Ford, Nixon's successor, was now seeking reelection in 1976 as an incumbent, and if Reagan ran, it would threaten to divide the GOP and reduce its chances of victory in the general election. At the same time, Ford was vulnerable. He had already become the first person to ascend to the presidency without being elected President or Vice President (Nixon appointed Ford his new Vice President after Spiro Agnew resigned), and by offering amnesty to Vietnam War draft dodger and appointing Nelson Rockefeller Vice President, Ford alienated conservatives in the Republican Party.  Reagan saw an opening for victory and thus opted to challenge the sitting Republican president.

Initially, Reagan's campaign floundered.  He lost many of the early critical primaries in New Hampshire, Florida and, worst, in his state of birth, Illinois.  By the campaign's second-half, however, Reagan shifted gears and began talking about foreign policy instead of taxation and welfare.  Being the hot topic of the day, Reagan's perceived strength on the Soviet Union catapulted him ahead, and he began winning primary after primary. By the time of the GOP convention in July, however, neither Ford nor Reagan had enough delegates to secure the nomination.  Since Ford controlled the Party apparatus after having been in Washington for decades, he was able to secure the nomination on the first ballot, by a narrow margin.

Reagan congratulates Ford at the 1976 convention

Regardless, Reagan's concession speech outshone Ford's acceptance, and was the convention's highlight.  Ford went on to lose the general election, while Reagan vowed to run again.  As it would turn out, Ford's loss to Jimmy Carter provided Reagan the perfect opportunity to try again.

“There You Go Again”: The Election of 1980
 

With Jimmy Carter faltering on both domestic and foreign policy, 1980 provided the perfect opportunity for Reagan to give the presidency a second try.  Carter had the misfortune of taking over the White House at the most inopportune of times, and by the end of his term, the nation was rattled by a hostage crisis, rising inflation, and sky-high oil prices.

On July 15, 1979, the United States was in the midst of another energy crisis, brought about by the revolution in Iran. President Carter decided to address the nation about the energy crisis, telling Americans that the “crisis of confidence" in the country was a “fundamental threat” to the nation. Carter was bemoaning what he viewed as the excesses and selfishness of the decade, lecturing Americans that “too many of us now tend to worship self-indulgence and consumption.”

Although he never actually used the word malaise in the speech, the “malaise” speech was emblematic of Carter’s pessimistic style and his habit of talking down to the nation. It was also a perfect example of why Carter had an approval rating around 35 percent at the end of the ‘70s. 1980 appeared ripe for Republicans to take back the White House.

In the early stages of the race for the Republican nomination, Reagan was the presumptive favorite.  However, former CIA Director and Republican Chairman George H.W. Bush won the first-in-the-nation primary, Iowa, by a narrow margin.  With this, the candidate claimed he had momentum and presented a credible challenge to Reagan. 

Bush's momentum was short-lived.  Apart from Iowa, he was only able to win a few primaries in the Northeast, particularly in his native New England.  The Bush-Reagan conflict came to a head when Bush accused Reagan of practicing “voodoo economics.”  Bush and many moderate Republicans were doubtful about Reagan's supply-side, trickle-down plan.  The Republican electorate, however, was sold, and Reagan swept most of the country in the contest.  He later chose Bush as his vice presidential running mate, hoping to patch up intra-party differences and add foreign policy bona fides to the ticket.

The general election was only slightly more challenging for Reagan.  He occasionally made gaffes or misstatements, suggesting, for example, that most pollution was caused by trees and vegetation.  He also failed to identify the President of France. But Americans were definitively sold after the one debate between Reagan and Carter. In the most memorable moment of the election, Carter began hammering Reagan’s record on Medicare during the debate, prompting Reagan to parry the attack completely by responding, “There you go again.” The coy phrase turned Carter’s attack on Carter himself, regardless of its merits and substance. Recognizing its effectiveness, Reagan would use it frequently during his presidency in other settings, including the 1984 election.  

Reagan ultimately sealed the deal by stressing the question of “are you better off today than you were when President Carter took office?” With the vast majority of Americans loudly asserting that they were not better off than they were four years ago, Reagan won the election handedly with 44 states or 489 electoral votes.  Doc Brown wouldn’t have believed it in 1955, but America had just elected a former Hollywood actor President of the United States.

Chapter 5: Reagan’s Presidency, 1981-1989

Reagan’s Inaugural Address

Inauguration, Assassination Attempt, and a Tax Cut

Reagan was sworn in on January 20
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, 1981, at the age of 69, becoming the oldest person sworn in as President in history. Despite Carter’s “malaise” speech, Americans living in the ‘70s did not have a sense of doom and gloom. When President Reagan took office, he effectively captured the national mood. In his first inaugural address, Reagan acknowledged the challenges ahead, but he exuded sunny optimism, telling Americans, “I believe we, the Americans of today, are ready to act worthy of ourselves, ready to do what must be done to ensure happiness and liberty for ourselves, our children and our children's children.”

Reagan’s comments in his inaugural address were classic examples of his faith in free markets and smaller government, the central beliefs of his conservative political philosophy. But the “Great Communicator” had also skillfully tied his personal beliefs into a message meant to encourage Americans to rely on themselves, not government.

In style, Reagan quickly set up a unique way of managing the White House. In contrast to Carter’s micromanagement, and recognizing his own comfort level as an actor, Reagan decided that he would perform theatrics while his advisors made policy, essentially making him a salesman. Reagan polished his public appearances, and offered an image of a strong White House, while his subordinates got to work making policy.  In fact, Reagan was said to be bored and inattentive at White House meetings.

With this style, Reagan quickly assumed the title of “Great Communicator.”  Regardless of whether he was actually bored with the meat of these policies, the President seemed to have an intuitive grasp of public leadership, and Reagan masterfully utilized it to his political advantage.

On March 30
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, 1981, however, Reagan's leadership was very nearly brought to an abrupt end. Less than 70 days into his term, the President was leaving a Hilton hotel when an unstable man named John Hinckley Jr. was able to get within 15 feet of the President as he approached a waiting limousine. Hinckley fired off several rounds, one of which hit press secretary James Brady in the head and another which hit Thomas Delahanty as Delahanty moved to protect Reagan. As Secret Service agents pushed Reagan into the limousine, Hinckley fired a few more rounds, one of which hit agent Timothy McCarthy in the chest as he laid across Reagan. The 6
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and final round Hinckley fired bounced off the limousine’s armored sidings and entered Reagan’s body under his left arm, coming within an inch of his heart. Reagan was not even initially aware that he was injured until collapsing in the limousine, and he was rushed into surgery. He was released on April 11
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, making a quick recovery and becoming the first sitting U.S. President to survive being shot.