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