Transcripts For CSPAN3 Washington Journal 20160710

Would want to welcome our viewers on cspan3s American History tv. Coming up in the next hour, a look back of the coverage of the day that unfolded to president fords nomination. Here is a portion. The Republican Party is here to nominate a president ial candidate for 1976. An incumbent president for the First Time Since 1912. Faces a serious challenge from within his own party. It comes tomorrow night. Ccording to the schedule matter to be settled out here at the floor of the convention. There will be a vote tonight that both sides knowledgeable test their strength which could make or break the candidates. Theill be on the chain of party rule. 16 c is the number of the role. It would force president for to name his Vice President running mate i tomorrow morning. 12 hours before the alateen is scheduled. Balloting isal scheduled. Ronald reagan had artie announced his running mate. 16 c was designed to do what . Force president for to name his running mate ahead of the balloting. Politically, why . The Republican Party was horribly fractured. Moderates, conservatives, insiders, outside it. John sears, reagans campaign fordger reason that anybody picked would antagonize a certain percentage of the delegation. Hopefully and prevent him from winning. The whole goal was to prevent gerald ford from winning a first ballot nomination. They would into a second ballot were lot of delegates mandated to vote for gerald ford on the first ballot, but would vote for whom they want to do on the second ballot. They reasoned that if they could get for you name a running mate, it would suppress his boats we would not get a first ballot nomination. Today his up orton why is this important today . Reaganublicans are republicans you have written today. Furthermore, reagan unleashed the most vigorous debate over the role of government in americas daily lives and goes on to say that since the Founding Fathers, there are public and debate and the ensuing transformation of the Republican Party started with reagans seemingly quixotic but most Important Campaign which failed and 1976. Some players back then are involved today. Caller some things never change. Some things never change. Paul metaphor was part of fords floor operation. Charlie black was advising john kasich and was involved with reagan. Aroundpencer is still and was advising john kasich and was reagans campaign manager. And a lot of the people who were around four years ago are still around today. Back, he of a sitting republican president , this led to the watergate investigation and resignation of Richard Nixon. The first and only appointed Vice President who became president. April division was in the gop among the chamber of commerce ideological and wing led by Ronald Reagan. Had fractured at the Republican Party was, as of august, 1974 when nixon resigned, only 18 of the American People claim allegiance to the Republican Party. Voters under 30 years of age, 11 claimed allegiance to the Republican Party. It was operationally dead. It was only one state in the country that had republicancontrolled with both the legislature and government. Had near total control of 49 of 50 states. There were state in the south that did not have elected republicans to constitutional offices. Republicans in the senate were below, 38 senators. They cannot mount an effective filibuster. The reporting party as of august, 1974 was a dead political party. One of the moments you recount in your book, a moment not scripted. Gerald ford securing the nomination called on Ronald Reagan and nancy reagan to come on down. Lets watch courtesy of cbs news. [applause] reagan to comed down and join him. Gesturing to him. Reagan is still signing autographs. May not even be able to see the president. Shouting into the microphones. Would you come down and bring says. He they just delivered the alabama standard and arizona standard. He is walking downstairs but he ultimately comes to the podium. We will show that. Such a great classic moment in American History. All drama. It was a singular moment in american politics because he gives an extemporaneous speech live on National Television, abc, cbs all covering a live before 17,000 republicans in cap arena in kansas city. That is, that is what american politics is about. Drama. Coming up in the next hour, a chance are you to watch on American History tv, some of the remarkable coverage that did provide gavel to gavel coverage of the proceedings. He mentioned the moment as reagan makes his moment way down to the podium and these impromptu remarks. Had an assignment the other day, some asked me to write a letter with a time capsule that would be opened in los angeles but hundred years from now. It sounded like an easy assignment. He suggested i write something about the goblins and issues of the day and i said, i would do so. Wrote about the blue pacific one side and the methods on the other and i cannot help but wonder if it was going to be that beautiful 100 years from now as it was on that summers day. Then as i tried to write, let your own minds turn to that task. You are going to write for people 100 years from now you know all about us and we know nothing about them. We dont know what kind of a world they will live in and suddenly, i thought to myself, if i write the problems, they will be domestic problems of which the president spoke you tonight, the challenges confronting us, the erosion of freedom that has taken place under democrat rule in this country. The invasion of private rights, the controls and restrictions of the great free economies enjoy. These are our challenges that we must leave. And then there is the challenge in which he spoke that we live in a world in which the great powers have poise and aimed at each other missiles of destruction, Nuclear Weapons that can in a matter of minutes arrived in each others country and destroy. Virtually the civilized world we live in. Suddenly it dawned on me, those who would read this letter 100 years from now will know whether those missiles were fired. They will know whether we met our challenge. Whether they have the freedoms that we have known up until now, it will depend on what we do here. He did not prepare that speech. Why . Guest he wasnt going to give a speech that night. He was in the skybox. He and mrs. Reagan were in the skybox overlooking kemper arena , and he was not going to give a speech that night. He was asked by tom brokaw. Are you going to speak tonight . He said, no. Ford knows he is the nominee of a broken and divided party. He needs a unified party and the best way to do that is bring reagan down to the podium this to speak to the crowd and hopefully endorsed and unify the party because unifying the party will win in the fall and divided parties will lose in the fall. Think about when republicans are divided in democrats divided in 1968. If he has got a chance against gerald ford, because at this point i mean, jimmy carter, because at this point, jimmy carter is 30 points ahead in the in thethe National Polls summer of 1976, so he brings reagan down, but also, ford had also spoken and given arguably the best speech he ever gave, so they want reagan to look a little bit less shiny to his followers and make ford look better. And wanted reagan to endorse forward but not look too good or do too well, so that is part of the agenda, too, but still, tremendous animosity between the two warring factions, the followers of gerald ford and the followers of Ronald Reagan. Host 1976 the last time we went into convention without knowing who the nominee would be. 40 years later, are the lessons to the republicans and for the democrats . Phone lines are open. 202 7488001 line for republicans. 202 7488000 for democrats. You can send us a tweet cspanwj. You were not there. Guest no. Host your wife was there. Guest my wife was there and they had to group of beautiful supporters for gerald ford called the president ials. They were organized by the ford campaign, and whenever he made a public appearance in a crowd with tv cameras, the president ials would appear and cheer and applaud, you know, encourage the president of the United States, so she was there as a president ial in 1976. Host this is a what if question, and i know it is hard to answer, but if he had been the nominee, do you think you would have been jimmy carter . Guest you know, steve, i have wrestled about that a number of times. I have talked with a number of people about this and i think, yes, he would have. He would have brought in the reagan democrats currently, so states like mississippi, ohio, that went very, very narrowly for him. Out of 4 million votes, it was covered by 6000 votes and texas is just as close. I think reagan would have swung both the state to his side. Secondly, i doubt reagan would have made a hash out of the president ial debates the way gerald ford did. You remember the second debate the soviet occupation of poland, where he effectively stopped his rising in the polls catching up to carter and he froze five days to seven days until he finally apologized and started rising again, but he did not catch jimmy carter in time. So i think it is quite possible that reagan would have won. Now states like michigan are , open to question, too, because they went heavily for ford, and i dont know, but it was a tremendously close election. Closer than people realize. Meeting that if you swung hawaii, which is like 2000 votes for jimmy carter and ohio only went by 6000 votes, you would have had a deadlock, because there was one fateful election that year from Washington State who voted for gerald ford, so 269,uld have been 269 to and that would have put it in the house of representatives. Who knows at that point because gerald ford had a lot of friends there and jimmy carter was open and running a Campaign Hostile to washington. The entrenched interests, so no one knows what would have happened. Host ted is joining us, democrat, you are on the phone with Craig Shirley author of how many books now . Guest seven. Host and another is coming out. Good morning. yes, and going to todays politics and the Republican Party, and i was wondering if he could comment on Michael Reagans comments about whether his father would support , imp, and even ron reagan think, concurs with his brother about whether reagan would approve of a nominee like trump. Host thank you. Ted. Guest well, obviously, mike and ron knew their father, his thinking. Whether or not they could speculate reagan would support trump is another matter. Reagan was a party man and did support the nominee of his party even though he disagreed with him. I think it is interesting to note that 1964 when goldwater was controversial nominee of the Republican Party is that all of the establishments lead Barry Goldwater. Mitt romneys father, bill scranton, they all fled. The only two people that stood by Barry Goldwater were Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan and both ended up becoming president of the United States, so there is something to be said for party loyalty. Host a viewer said, how did break and finally beat the gop establishment and create his big tent at the same time . Guest first of all, he never tent. That term big coined big tent, but a lot of the primaries were open primaries so that democrats and independents could come and vote for the candidate of their choice. Reagan would have lost the wisconsin primary arguably to then ambassador george bush because so many reagan democrats turned out to vote for Ronald Reagan, although interestingly they were not called reagan , democrats until after the 1980 election. They were just simply conservative democrats or democrats supporting Ronald Reagan. And a lot of key states, democrats could vote for Ronald Reagan so he repositions the Republican Party towards a more populist, Outsider Party by basically running against the establishment. When he ran in 1976, he held the a press conference at the National Press club, and he was against labor, lobbyists, upon it was antibigness. There was populist activity in illinois, a hot point at the time. He was born in kentucky, grew up in the 1930s, so he did so in a way that he did so also by talking about freedom and opportunity of the individual and talk to primary voters and then general election voters in a way that republicans had not talked before. Host our guest is Craig Shirley, one of his books reagans revolution, which is , what we are focusing on. And a reminder, we are also carrying this program on cspan3 American History tv and on that network, a chance to watch about coverage from cbs news of august 1976. It is fascinating. Margaret, chapel hill, tennessee. Good morning. Caller good morning. Thanks for cspan. I just want to kind of say that i disagree with him saying reagan would have beaten mr. Carter in those days. We just had the nixon tobacco, debacle, and i do not believe that the country was ready for another republican. Read the president s club to find out what really happened behindthescenes. It is very interesting. Thank you very much. Host thank you. Guest i read the president s club. It was a very good book. It was strictly a speculative question, but i still think it is possible. Nobody knows, but it is possible reagan would have run a Different Campaign van than gerald ford would have. Gerald ford was tied to watergate and reagan would not have been tied to watergate and he would have run a Different Campaign. The part of Richard Nixon or the continuation of the next and administration would not have been an issue had reagan been the nominee as opposed to gerald ford. Host when you see this tweet from senator mark kirk, who is in a tough battle in illinois, and he said, given my military experience donald trump does not , have the temperament to command our military or our nuclear arsenal. Your reaction . Not only in the state of the Republican Party today. Guest i would say the state of the Republican Party today i steve not say disaster, but i really do think it is open , to the question of how the party with a merge. There is no doubt that a skid schism exists, there are the populists in terms of outsiders and there is the establishment corporate, Big Government republican insiders. In fact, the phrase Big Government republican was coined during the bush 43 administration, so part of the republicans argue for big programst, dictating and other initiatives to the does it follow Ronald Reagans path, which is the traditional path, which is founders and framers and what they intended, which is power flows upward to the people instead of downward, and that is the great debate inside the Republican Party. Where does power reside . Does it reside with elites, in washington, with new york, or does it reside among the many American People . The party has not decided which path it is going to follow forward. Host john is next for massachusetts on the line for independents morning. With Craig Shirley. Good morning. I did not know what line to call in for. I dont know democrat, republican or independent, but i wanted to talk about the 1976 convention. In i was working in 1976, massachusetts for the young republicans, and can kind of amazing, people like hugh hewitt, but he was working on the campaign back then. And more interesting to me was the speech for robert dole at the convention, he was kind of the rising star that convention, and so the interesting timeframe that all ofng up in the things that have gone on in the past with jimmy carter and operation cyclone and yadda, yadda, and all the rhetoric and all the things that happened at watergate compared to kind of what is going on now, it seems like it is trivial, and i was wondering what your comments on that would the. Host john, thank you. Thank you. Guest history does repeat itself sometimes with divisions inside the Republican Party that were laid bare by watergate and the Goldwater Campaign, and George Romney and Nelson Rockefeller and others are being repeated today. We know what the outcome was for the Goldwater Campaign and we also laid the foundation for the nomination of Ronald Reagan, the mere nomination in 1976, and the nomination in 1980. A party in many ways rejected reagan and embraced bushism, although, now it is handtohand combat over what path it will follow. Forward. Host roger says this there is nothing wrong with the gop view, the people, only in the eyes of what they call the dinosaur elite that will not conform. Guest i think he has a fair point. Which is that, you know, when was the last time a Republican Party official proposed shrinking government . When was the last time, and i am talking about washington politicians, when was the last time they proposed eliminating the department of education, energy or downsizing in any way, shape, or form shrinking the power and control of authority of the National Government and sending it back to the states therein lies this the the and localities where it belongs . Disagreements inside the party today because the people think one thing and the elites think something different. Host lets go to new york city, on the democrats line. Good morning. Caller good morning. Fact, doesthe hillary have the temperament . She questions Donald Trumps temperament, but i question her temperament. She went to iraq and has dismembered the entire arab union over there. I mean, she is the one who should be held accountable. We should not reward her with the presidency when she did that awful mistake. You just dont say, whoops, i made a mistake. Guest in mrs. Clintons defense, almost everybody supported going into iraq, almost everybody, and that was kind of a natural reaction to 9 11. The democrats also have their divisions, too, and that is part of the reason that fueled Bernie Sanders campaign, the antiiraq war, but hindsight is 20 20 and it remains to be seen whether this issue will dog mrs. Clinton or not. Host let me put these issues into context. First, why did gerald ford decide not to run for a full term and then change his mind . Guest well, he you did your homework. He wrote a piece after he became Vice President and shortly after he became president , after nixon i think he 1974, so thought it would be a way to heal the country, that he could be a truly bipartisan president. Dont forget, the country was in very, very sad shape as of august 19 74, because we were still involved in vietnam. We were on the losing end of vietnam, interest rates, gas lines, arab oil embargos, and in every way, shape and form, in every measurable way consumer, peoples attitudes, it , the country was not in good shape in august 1974. I think he got the way to heal the country would be to say that he is not going to run for election and then he will not be the head of the Republican Party. I think it was probably wrongheaded to do, because it immediate we creates about his capacity to serve out two terms, if he cannot serve a full term of his own, why should he be there for two terms . That also aimed Ronald Reagan at challenging him. Accords,e the helsinki personal insults aimed at Ronald Reagan that emanated from the Gerald Ford White house. All of these factored into reagan taking on gerald ford beginning in 1975. Host and this election of Nelson Rockefeller as Vice President , was that the defining moment for ford and reagan . Guest well, it was a defining moment for conservatives. I interviewed Vice President cheney about this and he said that they picked Nelson Rockefeller for reason of stature. They wanted to bring someone into the administration, into the ford administration, who was seen as having stature in american politics and the world affairs. Gerald ford was a one term congressman from michigan, who was not seen as a world leader, not even seen as at american leader. The authority, the majesty of the executive office, so that is a real reason why they threw Nelson Rockefeller in. It did not help. In fact, it hurts because it ofled the scene conservatives breaking forward which led to eventually reagans challenger, gerald ford. Host we will have a couple more minutes from the cbs coverage, including gerald ford and a conversation with senator bob dole, forwards running mate. He will be 93 years old in a couple of weeks. Lets go to matt in minnesota on the republican line. Caller good morning. I have a question for mr. Shirley. In minnesota, we had an election with the establishment with komen for governor and Skip Humphrey on the democrats item, and we had a wrestler who won , the governorship here. Wondering if you can, as i do draw some parallels and , see how possibly electing an outsider as trump, as we might, could be just an exercise and a big mistake which was, in my , opinion, i dont think jesse not haveertainly did the temperament for governor. He did some things ok, but he was mostly kind of a nothing. I am curious of what you think about that. Host thank you. Matt. Guest at the end of the american revolution, Benjamin Rush was one of the founders. Thomas payne was known as the intellectual firepower of the american revolution. , and he said that war is over, but revolution goes on, and by that, he meant that american politics to succeed is that it must always be in perpetual state of the revolution. You must always question authority. You must always question the status quo, and out of the seeds of that came the Republican Party. The most successful republican president have an antistatus quo. Abraham lincoln, antistatus quo. Teddy roosevelt was antistatus quo. So was dwight eisenhower. If you think about it, his farewell address with the complex,industrial which dominated america and washington for years since the end of world war ii. He is antistatus quo, and of course, Ronald Reagan was the very definition of antistatus quo. You know, it is interesting. Of nationalhe head government for eight years, and yet, you never think of reagan as being part of washington because he came for eight years , and he constantly challenged the reigning authority and the reigning status quo. Host join the conversation, 202 7488001 for republicans. And 202 7488000 for democrats. As we look back at the 1976 convention that pitted president gerald ford and former governor Ronald Reagan. General ford gerald ford delivering these remarks after [video clip] gerald ford to whom the overwhelming the power had twice been shattered, losing faith in the word of their elected leaders and americans want some of their faith in their own selves. Again, lets look at the records of august 1974. From the start, my administration has been open, candid, forthright. [applause] mr. Ford while my entire public and private life was under searching examination for the vice presidency, i reaffirmed my lifelong conviction that truth is the glue that holds government together, not only government, but civilization itself. [applause] mr. Ford i have demanded honesty, decency and personal integrity from everybody in that executive branch of the government. The house and senate have the same duty. [applause] mr. Ford the American People will not accept the double standard in the United States congress. [applause] [end video clip] shirley, how did gerald ford do . Guest he did very well. It was certainly the best local speech of his life. He was not known as being a good speech maker, and, in fact, one commentator said ford would put you to sleep in the second paragraph and reagan could not get a standing ovation in a graveyard. He helped write the speech and how to practice in front of the teleprompter. And he knows he is up against Ronald Reagan, who was, arguably, in 1976, the best speech maker in america. He and Jesse Jackson probably the best speech makers in 1976, and so he has got to do something about this, and so, he speechrguably the best he has ever given in his life. Host the kemper arena in kansas city, missouri, i mention that because stephen is from kansas city. By the way is the arena still , there . Caller yes, it is. And so my question is, how did , the republicans go from, you know eisenhower through george , bush having a Strong America and not always having the gop establishment win, but they were never nationalists like trump. How did they go to get one elected like this . Host good question, stephen. Guest i will try to answer this. Parties involved. Parties change over time because the issues change. Men and women change and the attitudes for the American People change. The Republican Party has changed just over just since the time of reagan. People forget jimmy carter in 1976 ran as an outsider, ran against the washington establishment. He was pretty good on national issues. He ran in many ways as a outsider,ve populist which was contradictory to what the Democratic Party had been since the time of franklin d. Roosevelt, when they put more faith in the government. But, you know, after 1976, you have the status of government in to controletnam, inflation, the interest rate, the ability of the government to protect president kennedy or Martin Luther king jr. Or Bobby Kennedy junior, so believe in government by 1976 is at an alltime low and it illustrates my point that parties change because issues change because people change. Host finish this sentence. The relationship between Ronald Reagan and gerald ford was guest [laughter] difficult, complicated. One of fords speechwriters wrote that they could barely be in the same room together, and mrs. Ford and mrs. Reagan just could not stand each other, which is unusual, because the reagans were very affable and got along with just about everybody. Host why didnt ford asked reagan to serve as his running mate . Guest they had gone to gerald david, armedt cap with polling data that said that fords best choice in 1976 would be Ronald Reagan, in order to unify the party and to reach out to democrats in key states like michigan, pennsylvania, texas, mississippi, and other marginal states, but reagan considerably did not want to be, so he sent word. He told john sears to talk to cheney, regardless if ford wins the nomination, and i do not want to win embarrassed the president of the United States by telling him no, i do not want to be his running mate, so please, do not tell him to be my running that, so john sears, the campaign manager, deliver the message to dick cheney, fords white house chief of staff. They met the night that ford won the nomination but ford did not ask reagan to be his running mate because reagan had already said he did not want to be his running mate. Host and john sears is still alive today. Guest still alive. Host your book talks about something we missed today. The silly hats. Some pictures from 1976. We will listen to chad from North Carolina on the republican line. With Craig Shirley. Good morning. Caller i heard the comment about Jesse Ventura and he was kind of what i think what our Founding Fathers wanted. He was not a career politician. He had been in navy seal, which less than 1 of military becomes. He, you know, he was from the private sector. He saw what he thought was that needed and fixed it. In my opinion, i grew up in georgia. Carter there is not another , president who built houses. He still teaches sunday school at 90 years old in plains, georgia. I think reagan was a powerful speaker and he was kind of people trusted reagan. He was probably the best figurehead country has ever had. I think he did a really good job. That is just my opinion. Host this is chronicling Ronald Reagan, last act, the final years and emerging legacy of Ronald Reagan. Guest yes, and i believe that carter was a superb president. In fact, he has defined the role for former president s. Most president s went to gettysburg, and when a president would ask for advice, they would call and give it, but otherwise, they would go back to being private citizens and giving an occasional speech, but not carter. No one has carried on the work like carter has. He was delightful. He was very, very helpful. Frank isk is joining us from new york. Fright . Good morning. I will try one more time for frank in new york. Let me ask you about this election who was Ronald Reagans running mate in 1976. Why did that backfire . Guest it did not backfire. Actually it worked brilliantly. ,and this is part of the host but conservatives said they were upset. Guest but he supported it. Yes they were upset, but he , supported it. It was a risk, which according but reagan had to do something because it was three weeks out from the convention. He knows the cbs critical unit, the most respected operation in america. It was big, it was massive, it was wellfunded. Both camps had been looking at numbers. Jim baker held a press conference saying reagan had 1157, and then john sears would hold a press conference and say, had 1157. They both had this fall to machine. Fog the first timeis the candidates meet, the First Time Since it is the first time trying to gain psychological advantage, so cbs says, we will just count everybody ourselves, so they start calling out they start calling everyone around the country. There was a 55 share and if all to contact said it, you could bank on it and it was true, the cronkite said it, true. The most trusted man in america. He has going to announce, prepared to announce that gerald ford has secured enough delegates, three weeks before the convention, if he does this and goes on National Television and makes the announcement, reagans campaign is dead in the water. Sears knows this. He needs to change the story line. The way to do it was for reagan to do something unprecedented, which was to choose his running mate the head of the convention. They chose them brilliantly. Reagan was a well, modern conservative from pennsylvania who was ironically afford delegate ironically a ford delegate. Conservative on prolife, vaccinations, the second conservative on cap dicaptive nations, the second amendment, National Defense and he had been vetted by the media, was married to a wonderful woman and never any scandals associated with him. First of all, it will kill the cbs story because it will create a cloud of doubt about pennsylvania and new york and other state delegate counts, so that part of it works brilliantly, which is to kill the cbs story. Schweikerg keeps reagans Campaign Alive until the convention and then they try it was part of a threepart strategy by sears, first was the campaign, second was 16c, forcing ford to name their running mate, and the third part was to get the motion on the floor that both tickets have to address the convention and that is what terrified ford forces, they do not Ronald Reagan addressing the convention. That is what terrified the four forces. Ford forces. He was this close to a Runaway Convention and they were terrified. Reagan spoke to the national convention, as we saw, and people and have said, i do not care what the rules say, i am voting for reagan for president of the United States. At least one delegate turned into a ford supporter and she turns to reagan field manager and says, oh, my god, we have nominated the wrong man. Host lets go to buck in georgia. Caller thank you particular call. Great conversation by the way. I am wondering how these outsiders or if these outsiders are an indispensable, if unintentional sort of antiseptic to the flow of power . I am not sure was designed this way but it really sounds like it in the air of the conversation that these people are more than indispensable. Guest they are more than indispensable. The constitution, you know, it says we the people, not we the leaves or with the corporate elites, but we the people. If you take the literal meaning of the framers and founders, it is that this is a government of all the people and not just the elites, so we had a great tension going on and sometimes more. During the Great Depression and world war ii, we are far more united as a country than we are today. Host we will hear from former senator bob dole in the moment. Why did gerald ford select him . Guest the night that reagan and ford met alone at the alameda hotel, after ford secured the nomination, is that ford handed reagan a list of about six candidates to run. Previously, dole knew he was on the short list and he asked an old friend, look, if president ford asks governor reagan about me, we do ask governor reagan to Say Something nice . So he said, yes and he tells this to reagan and if ford asked you about dole, Say Something nice, so reagan was looking at the list that ford handed him and he speaks favorably for bob dole, which is part of the reason why ford chose dole. He was a conservative, 19 76, war hero, well thought of, they thought he would be a good combative campaign there and take the fight to corridor in carter in 1976 and that he would be a good debater and you would help unify the convention. He was not a standin for reagan but acceptable. Host we had a conversation with bob dole, not only about his role as gerald fords running mate, but this question did Ronald Reagan do enough in 1976 to unite the Republican Party . [video clip] let me ask you about that moment where Ronald Reagan came down and you are standing off to the side with resident ford. Do you think at that point that he did enough to unite the Republican Party in 1976 . Bob dole no, i would have to say probably not. I mean the reagan people were reagan people. They were wonderful candidates and he did not get the nomination. I think there are thousands and thousands of republicans, reagan republicans and reagan democrats, who did not support ford. I remember i was the one who met with reagan a couple of times, once in new hampshire, and i cannot remember the second place. We try to bring him around and get him to support wholeheartedly, if that is the word. He was very good to me, and i think it was attempted endorsement, i am not certain how he said it, but it was not very long. I think he could have made a difference and talked about a very close election. Host wha was he right about that . Guest probably. You have to put yourself back in 1976. Reagan has just lost by the narrowest of margins. We believe he has lost because of shenanigans and hankypanky in some delegations like in new york, mississippi and others. He has also been the brunt of personal attacks gerald ford and the former white house for two years. He has gone through grueling campaigns, so he is angry. For a time, he did not do a lot of campaigning f for theord campaigning for the ford ticket. Ford did not call and ask reagan for his help until one month after the Kansas City Convention and the election of 1976 was very complex. The National Election was until november 2, the early sin has been held in 100 years. Host lets go to ari from georgia. Caller who did Ronald Reagan send to iran before the election in 1980 to negotiate with them about holding onto the hostages . Guest nobody. There has never been any credible the october surprise got flipped on its head because it was referring to carter possibly getting the hostages out before the november election and the American People were in gratitude with reelection in november of 1980, so there is far more evidence that the hostages were manipulated for political gain and there is some evidence with jimmy carter did such as the morning of the wisconsin primary, when he goes on National Television to announce a major breakthrough that has occurred in the hostage negotiations, thereby, he picks up his voters and supporters in wisconsin in 1980 and ends up winning the primary there. The wonderful political reporter for the Washington Post noted several long detailed stories in 1980 about how president carter had politicized and used and manipulated the hostage crisis to his advantage in 1980, so there is far more evidence coming from many more sources that carter politicized the hostage crisis and actually, reagan was on the sidelines throughout 1980. The summer of 1980 when carter attempted the rescue, which failed, reporters caught up with reagan and he said, this is the day for two words in many prayers and that is pretty much it. Host in about 10 minutes, coverage from 1976 cbs news. You can watch it on cspan3s American History to be as you look at the convention in kansas city. A lot of great moments, including this one under the direction of walter kwok right walter cronkite. He makes a reference to the former governor of new york. [video clip] walter could you stand up for a moment . The phone people are here connecting it. You have the disconnected phone. Governor weve got the telephone people with the greatest efficiency and they are tremendous with speed, right on the job. I have to give it back so they can put it in. Walter good for the fund company. Good for the phone company. Mr. Vice president , what happened . What did you see . Who did it and what happened . None of us know and we just told Nick Rosenbaum that if he did not get that sign back, walter what sign was that . He saw you take a sign from another man, a reagan sign. He held it as i went by. Walter and then he came back to get the reagan sign back. It was a man from utah. Walter ok. He was a little on the light side. Walter ok. I am trying to get out but i cannot get out. Walter Vice President wants to get out of here and he cannot unless we get out of here. There he goes, secret Service Helping him. Host from 1976, Vice President Nelson Rockefeller and a classic moment. Guest total spontaneity. Conventions were so scripted and we expected to be less scripted this time, but this was complete spontaneity. That is the Vice President of the United States, but that was part of 1976. What happened was that rockefeller for a sign that was holding up that said reagan for president and rockefeller ripped it out of the delegates hand and tore it up and the utah delegates on what was happening and he took the sign away from Nelson Rockefeller and gave it back to the North Carolina delegate. He agitated the whole situation and it was from rockefeller. Host hector from san diego. Good morning. Caller thank you for taking my call. The last comment answered my question in terms of security for the 1976 convention. Host what about security . Guest there was secret service, but that would never happen in a million years, they would not even allow dick cheney or Vice President s for now or nominees to go on for today, even with all of the technology and all the other security. They would never allow the Vice President or president to mingle with the delegates, except in the most controlled and limited circumstances. Host i say this with a smile on my face, look at the hair from 1976. John from philadelphia on the republican line. Where the democrats will meet this time. Caller good morning. Thank you for having me. My daughter is working the Democratic Convention as an electrician down there. I remember back when reagan was about to come in office. I was really young and did not understand a lot of things about politics, but what i thought was that they carved away from the iran contra that was a shooin for reagan to become president. That was known before he was elected that that was what he was going to do. Guest iran contra was run by norse, north and became an issue in 1987, but i dont see the connection. Host lessons for republicans in 2016 as you look back . Guest faith in the American People. Representative government is derived term republic and the public is derived from christian values, which is that the Republican Party should be a moral, anticorrupt and antiinsider party. We know that with concentrations, personal freedoms, and the best way for the Republican Party to perceive or to proceed forward in the country, especially with the people, is not the question of ideology but practicality. There is a big, fast country that is the best way to govern is to send power out to the American People, the localities individuals localities, individuals and let them decide. Host as someone who spent his entire life falling republican politics, i want to share with you the passing of the former senator who began in cleveland, ohio, as the mayor, and he was 79 years old. His legacy. Guest George Voinovich was a pioneer of new republican style in the midwest, which can about after eisenhower, which was ideological compared to Ronald Reagan, but he wanted a break from the past of the republicans that brought a lot of performing party politics. Host your new book on Newt Gingrich will come out when . Guest next spring. Host thank you for being with us. We appreciate your time. This is a cbs news special report, campaign 76. Tonight, the Third Session of the Republican National convention. This portion is sponsored by merrill lynch. Merrill lynch is bullish on america. And now heres walter cronkite. Walter the Republican Party is here, of course. An incumbent president for the First Time Since 1912 faces a serious challenge from within his own already. That president ial balentine comes tomorrow night. But the matter could very well be settled out here on the floor this convention in kemper arena tonight. It willes of knowledge test their strength, which could make or break their candidate here. 16 c is the number of the new rule proposed by the reagan side that would force president ford to name his Vice President ial running mate by tomorrow morning, 12 hours before the president ial balentine is scheduled to begin. We will be hearing more about the details in the next few minutes. Also tonight, a speech by the former governor of texas and nixon cabinet official, onetime democrat turned republican, capable of a rousing speech from this podium that could affect the convention and its own political future. President ford has broken with the precedent of the years passed to come to this convention to take personal charge of the discourses. Perhaps the most important for him is the key battles of his nomination fight coming to a head tonight. Bob schieffer reports. Bob the president spent a lot of time visiting various state allegations. He went to some of the headquarters hotels and had other dollar legation to headquarters on the 18th floor of this hotel. One of the things you come away with after talking to people here, members of the white house staff is this the ford people seem a lot more comfortable about their vote count. On the other hand, they are worried about 1