Free Reagan's Revolution by Craig Shirley Page A

Massachusetts, where we did lit drops, registered voters, and did whatever we could with the meager resources provided to Massachusetts by the national campaign. As one can imagine, since the Bay State was the only state George McGovern carried against Richard Nixon four years earlier, it was not a top priority for Ford.
    Twenty-eight years later, I am still involved in politics. And I am just one of the thousands of young Americans who heard the Reagan message, felt the magic, and decided to do something about it.
    Many of the two hundred people I interviewed have asked me about the behaviors and varying pathologies of some of the people involved—on the Ford side, on the Reagan side, at the White House, in the media, and at the Republican National Committee. Some involved women, others mild drug use, others gambling, and, with many, drinking. In fact, part of the backdrop of politics in 1976 was that everybody drank—sometimes a lot. Even Gerald Ford was known to enjoy a couple of high balls after 5 P.M. or while relaxing with reporters on Air Force One. It was completely normal for most men in politics—and some women—to have two or three drinks at lunch and then meet up for cocktails after work.
    But I chose to write this book because it is a missing part of the history of Ronald Reagan’s rise from a former Governor to World Leader, and how he transformed American politics—not to trash people for their foibles and personal misbehavior.
    I concluded that I would only address those problems that had a direct bearing on the ability of these people to do their jobs. In the case of Bob Hartmann, Ford’s key aide, after speaking to many people, I came to the conclusion that his heavy drinking affected his ability to perform his tasks. In the case of John Sears, while he clearly liked to drink at the time, I concluded after talking with the people who knew him best that his drinking did not affect his ability to do his job. Jack Germond, for example, told me that John Sears would drink martinis all through dinner, “but it didn’t stop him from being smarter than hell . . . it didn’t affect his performance.”
    Reagan also enjoyed a glass of wine or a cocktail, but he would usually stick to just one or two drinks—he could mix a martini with the best of them. It was also a different time in that politicians, politicos, and reporters would often drink and dine together without fear of what was said showing up in the newspaper the next morning.
    On the subject of women, one senior member of one of the two campaigns parked a Winnebago in the parking lot of the Kemper Arena and stashed his girlfriend there for the week of the convention—even though this man was “happily” married. But this indiscretion did not adversely impact his ability to perform his job, so there is no need to name him, his wife, or the woman involved. The details are simply not important.
    I also found the media coverage of the 1976 campaign—especially of Ronald Reagan—to be professional and for the most part fair. Reagan did experience the occasional pot shot from the mainstream media and certainly from the editorial writers and liberal columnists. But the newspaper reporters were generally fair to Reagan. However, the networks and the weeklies—especially CBS and Time — would sometimes take gratuitous shots at Reagan.
    Still, the material I gathered from all these sources was invaluable. I don’t know how many hours I put in working on this book, but I never looked at it as anything other than a labor of love. Writing this book has been one of the most enjoyable experiences of my life.
    Perhaps as much as having had the chance to work for Reagan himself.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
    M y deepest appreciation and gratitude goes to my colleague, Andi Hedberg, for all of her hard work reviewing drafts, researching, fact checking, transcribing interviews, watching endless hours of video, traveling to the Reagan and Ford Presidential Libraries, her