this is from a book about the biden campaign by reporters jonathan allen and amie parents, lucky how joe biden barely won the presidency. jim clyburn had heard enough, or really not enough. the house democratic whip pushed himself out of his seat at the charleston s center con hert hall. and he dashedch for the exit wi the urgency that a friend recognized as a 79-year-old reason to find a rest room, he needed to find joe biden and fast before the end of a commercial break before the end ofe the presidential debate. february 25th, four days before the south carolina primary and biden was blowing it again. almost an hour and 45 minutes had passed inal the debate alrey and biden hadn t mentioned the one promise jim clyburn said would nail down black votes in south carolina throughout the rest ofso the primary and in th generalre election. clyburn wasan shocked but not stunned. he made a bee line for the
at that time and only highlighted the other things that were wrong in reagan s record on that subject. and in fact, his polling consistently showed that reagan was polling way better with men than he was with women, his support among women was actually quite soft given how well he was doing overall. and that was all apparently worrying enough to the ronald reagan campaign in 19880 that in october of that year, es less than a month before the election, ronald reagan called a press conference, and called this rabbit out of the hat. ronald reagan today promised to appoint a women to the supreme court if elected press. reagan said he mate the promise to set the record straight on his attitude to equal opportunities forhi women. more with chris wallace. with his own polls continuing to show he runs better among men than women, reagan took a dramatic step to reach out to female support. i m announcing one of the
campaign that if he werema elecd we put an african american woman oned the supreme court, the conservative media figures who are making a big deal out of that and republican elected officials who are making a big deal of that, they ought to be asked if they were that mad about ronald reagan making that same kind of promise in 1980. i got it tell you, this is not an on cure thing people forgot, when reagan made that promise ahead of therg 1980 election, i didn t come from nowhere. it was big news. nbc had reported during the republican national convention earlier that year that reagan was already floating the idea to republican women to try to appease them, because they were so mad about his dismal record when it came to women and women swh rights, it was very clear that he wasan doing this r political reasons, to try to win back women s votes. the record is clear. most of the day, reagan was in his suite on the 69th floor of theis headquarters hotel.
first supreme court vacancies in my administration will be qualified by the most qualified woman i can possibly find, one who meets the high standards i would demand for all court appointments. it s a time for a women to sit among our highest jurists. reagan acknowledged that his opposition to the equal rights amendment hurt him with some women. the supreme court announcement was a bold step for a campaign often criticized for sitting on the lead but reagan aides worry as election need, democrats will come home to vote for mr. carter and they hope that there is new reason to vote for reagan. chris wallace, idaho fall, idaho. less than a month before the election against jimmy carter pledged that if he were elected he would appoint a woman to the supreme court. when the conservative media and republicans today have been pounding their chest and screaming about how wrong, just how wrong it is that joe biden made a pledge during his