Reagan into a corner, going down to the wire in a way that would oblige Reagan to take Ford and
accept any conditions that Ford might choose to impose. But then Ford went to Reagan's hotel roomto "give him my decision, and my decision is no." "As Ford left, Reagan wiped his brow and said,
'Now where the hell's George Bush?'" [fn 32] Reagan had been so fixated on his haggling with Ford
that he had not done anything to develop vice presidential alternatives to Bush, and now it was too
late.
The best indication that Ford had been working all along as an agent of Bush was provided by Ford
himself to Germond and Witcover: "Ford, incidentially, told us after the election that one of his
prime objectives at the convention had been 'to subtly help George Bush get the [vice-presidential]
nomination.'" [fn 33]
Drew Lewis helped Reagan make the call that he found so distasteful. Reagan came on the line:
"Hello, George, this is Ron Reagan. I'd like to go over to the convention and announce that you're
my choice for vice preident...if that's all right with you."
"I'd be honored, Governor."
Reagan was still reluctant. "George, is there anything at all ...about the platform or anything
else...anything that might make you uncomfortable down the road?"
"Why, yes, sir," said Bush "I think you can say I support the platform --wholeheartedly."
Reagan now proceeded to the convention floor, where he would announce this choice of Bush.
Knowing that this decision would alienate many of Reagan's ideological backers, the Reagan
campaign leaked the news that Bush had been chosen to the media, so that it would quickly spread
to the convention floor. They were seeking to cushion the blow, to avoid mass expressions ofdisgust when Bush's name was announced. Even as it was, there was much groaning and booing (^)
among the Reagan faithful.
In retrospect, the sucess of Bush's machinations at the 1980 convention can be seen to have had a
very sinister precedent at the GOP convention held in Philadelphia just eighty years earlier. At thatconvention, William McKinley, one of the last of the Lincoln Republicans, was nominated for a
second term.
The New York bankers, especially the House of Morgan, wanted Theodore Roosevelt for vice
president, but McKinley and his chief political ally, Senator Marc Hanna, were adamant that theywanted no part of the infantile and megalomaniac New York governor. At one point Hanna
exclaimed to a group of southern delegates, "Don't any of you realize that there's only one life
between this madman and the White House!" Eventually McKinley's hand was forced by a group of
New York delegates who were motivated primarily by their desire to get the unpopular and erratic
Roosevelt out of the state at any cost. They told Hanna that unless Roosevelt were on the ticket,McKinley might loose the vital New York electoral votes. McKinley and Hanna capitulated, and (^)
Theodore Roosevelt joined the ticket. [fn 34]
Within one year, President McKinley was assassinated at Buffalo, and Theodore Roosevelt assumed
power in the name of the fanatical and imbecilic Anglo-Saxon imperial strategy of worlddomination which helped to precipitate the First World War.
Did Bush's professed admiration for Theodore Roosevelt include a desire to seize the presidency via
a similar path? The events of March, 1981 will give us cause to ponder.