Centerfield

Reagan/Ford '80

Newsweek has reprinted it's July 1980 article on how the Reagan/Ford ticket became a possibilty and then fell apart at the Republican National Convention in Detroit. Literally, men like Henry Kissinger, Howard Baker, Bob Dole, Edwin Meese, and Alan Greenspan tried to make history and re-create the Presidency as we now know it:

In retrospect, the entire scheme seemed domed from the start, and the wonder was that it went as far as it did. A handful of men were attempting nothing less than a behind-the-scenes restructuring of the Presidency in a matter of hours. The pressure was intense, and some of the negotiators on both sides may have felt a personal stake in the outcome. What prolonged the negotiations, and gave the prospect of a Reagan-Ford ticket a life of its own, was mainly the Hamlet-like indecision of Jerry Ford, so tempted by a possible return to power and a Republican restoration that he repeatedly entertained further consideration of a plan that, almost in the same breath, he repeatedly dismissed as unworkable. In the end, the man who best knew the Presidency and the Vice Presidency succumbed to a reality he had sensed all along.

Some loyal Republicans thought Reagan naive to believe that Ford could be comfortable in a subsidiary role—in the campaign or the government. Both men must have known that any bargain struck in Detroit would be unenforceable in Washington. If a Reagan-Ford ticket had been created and elected, it might have splintered authority in the White House and led to even greater rivalry and friction than normally exist in any Administration. It was a "dream ticket" that threatened a political morass and a constitutional nightmare.

It's really good stuff, especially if you are into political theatrics. I encourage you to read the whole thing.