There has been some discussion on social media, and comments by Mark Levin, Red State, and others stating that Ronald Reagan never endorsed Gerald Ford as President. Did he or didn’t he?
For those who believe that Ronald Reagan didn’t endorse Gerald Ford, please watch the video of Reagan’s appearance at the 1976 convention, rather than taking at face value what Mark Levin, Red State, and others have said about it.
Ford warmly introduces Reagan, first of all, referring to him as “my friend”. Reagan speaks of the fine Republican platform, refers to Ford as “Mr. President” and, at the end of the speech, claps Ford on the back and shakes his hand. Reagan’s speech may not have included the words, “I endorse Gerald Ford as President of the United States”, but he also didn’t use the opportunity to launch his own campaign in 1980, or to tell attendees that they should “vote their conscience” when they go to the polls in November.
No comparison to what we witnessed last night at the 2016 RNC Convention when Ted Cruz spoke. Besides, Ted Cruz signed a pledge saying that he would support the Republican 2016 Presidential nominee. If he couldn’t live up to his pledge, he should have politely declined the invitation to speak, as Mike Huckabee said in recent remarks. He should have stayed away, as Jeb Bush did.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbvIo9Lebrc
Mike Huckabee’s Facebook post:
Transcript of Ronald Reagan’s 1976 speech at the convention:
Mr. President, Mrs. Ford, Mr. Vice President, Mr. Vice President-to-be, the distinguished guests here, ladies and gentlemen. I was going to say fellow Republicans here but those who are watching from a distance (including) all those millions of Democrats and independents who I know are looking for a cause around which to rally and which I believe we can give them. Mr. President, before you arrive tonight, these wonderful people, here, when we came in, gave Nancy and myself a welcome. That, plus this, plus your kindness and generosity in honoring us by bringing us down here will give us a memory that will live in our hearts forever.
Watching on television these last few nights Ive seen also the warmth with which you greeted Nancy and you also filled my heart with joy when you did that. May I say some words. There are cynics who say that a party platform is something that no one bothers to read and is doesn’t very often amount to much. Whether it is different this time than is has ever been before, I believe the Republican party has a platform that is a banner of bold, unmistakable colors with no pale pastel shades. We have just heard a call to arms, based on that platform.
And a call to us to really be successful in communicating and reveal to the American people the difference between this platform and the platform of the opposing party which is nothing but a revamp and a reissue and a rerunning of a late, late show of the thing that we have been hearing from them for the last 40 years.
If I could just take a moment, I had an assignment the other day. Someone asked me to write a letter for a time capsule that is going to opened in Los Angeles a hundred years from now, on our Tricentennial.
It sounded like an easy assignment. They suggested I write about the problems and issues of the day. And I set out to do so, riding down the coast in an automobile, looking at the blue Pacific out on one side and the Santa Ynez Mountains on the other, and I couldn’t help but wonder if it was going to be that beautiful a hundred years from now as it was on that summer day.
And then as I tried to write-let your own minds turn to that task. You’re going to write for people a hundred years from now who know all about us, we know nothing about them. We don’t know what kind of world they’ll be living in. And suddenly I thought to myself, If I write of the problems, they’ll be the domestic problems of which the President spoke here tonight; the challenges confronting us, the erosion of freedom taken place under Democratic rule in this country, the invasion of private rights, the controls and restrictions on the vitality of the great free economy that we enjoy. These are the challenges that we must meet and then again there is that challenge of which he spoke that we live in a world in which the great powers have aimed and poised at each other horrible missiles of destruction, nuclear weapons that can in a matter of minutes arrive at each others country and destroy virtually the civilized world we live in.
And suddenly it dawned on me; those who would read this letter a hundred years from now will know whether those missiles were fired. They will know whether we met our challenge.
Whether they will have the freedom that we have known up until now will depend on what we do here. Will they look back with appreciation and say, Thank God for those people in 1976 who headed off that loss of freedom? Who kept us now a hundred years later free? Who kept our world from nuclear destruction?
And if we fail they probably wont get to read the letter at all because it spoke of individual freedom and they wont be allowed to talk of that or read of it.
This is our challenge and this is why were here in this hall tonight. Better than we’ve ever done before, we’ve got to quit talking to each other and about each other and go out and communicate to the world that we may be fewer in numbers than we’ve ever been but we carry the message they’re waiting for. We must go forth from here united, determined and what a great general said a few years ago is true: There is no substitute for victory. Mr. President.
Stella's Place 
“My word is my Bond”. I Remember watching this speech, Reagan was/is pure class.
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Look behind Nancy Reagan’s head. The guy in the grey suit, watch on his left wrist, full head of hair. Standing there is either Clint Eastwood, or Paul Manaford……….. Need somebody with better eyes…..what do you think Stella?
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I think it might be Stone. Here’s a photo of Reagan’s staff team at the time: Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, and Lee Atwater:
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By the way –
theyManafort and Stone haveallcome out in support of Trump.LikeLiked by 1 person
People have speculated on whether or not Atwater would support Trump. Since he died in 1991, we will never know.
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Thank you fir posting!
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And thanks for your opineion.
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Hahaha! My fat fingers typing on my iPhone! “I am a speed typist — I can type 6 letters simultaneously!”
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I’m up to 3 minutes per word
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Look you can have whatever opinion that you what. For me, Ted honored his pledge by showing up and speaking at what is essentially Trump’s convention. I hold no ill will for him in not saying the words I endorse Donald Trump because frankly Trump called him a liar for almost a solid year. Reagan did NOT endorse Ford he never spoke the words. But Cruz is supporting him by being there, unlike a certain Ohio Governor. I think Ted should be commended because the man has principles and does not let a support for a political party or it’s nominee override what he believes in his heart and what he said while campaigning. Unlike, Bernie Sanders who said over and over and over that Hillary Clinton is not fit to be President, then all of a sudden she is fit and he endorses her. Hogwash…these people have no principles. I value principles far more than some petty pledge.
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Did you read the speech or, more important, did you watch the video? Reagan actually campaigned for Ford in 1976, probably not wholeheartedly, but he put the importance of winning the election above his own personal hurt. Because of his mature response, he was perfectly positioned to win in 1980. Ted just torpedoed his chances. His speech was his first 2020 campaign speech. In his rally earlier that afternoon, he said as much (I had a relative there, who is a Cruz supporter).
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Rand Paul wins the award for graciousness. He isn’t at the convention, but he is giving free surgery for poor people this week.
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Rand Paul Isn’t at the RNC. He’s Literally Curing the Blind Instead.
http://reason.com/blog/2016/07/19/rand-paul-isnt-at-the-rnc-hes-literally
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Since I’m cooled off this morning, I will be nice.
Cruz hurt himself, he didn’t hurt Trump, although Hillary will run that ad over and over. So if it works the way she wants it to work then it will hurt the country and Cruz can pat himself on the back.
Cruz could have did a non-endorsement by not saying “I endorse,” and done it with class and looked like he was trying to unite the party as Ronald Reagan did and possibly had a shot in the future. Instead he had to act like a classless fool and ruined all chances of ever being elected President.
Reagan in 1976 compared to Cruz 2016 is night and day difference. If Reagan had acted like that in 1976 there never would have been a President Reagan.
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“For those who believe that Ronald Reagan didn’t endorse Gerald Ford, please watch the video of Reagan’s appearance at the 1976 convention, rather than taking at face value what Mark Levin, Red State, and others have said about it.”
In abstract, I think this is key to understanding how we find ourselves in the current environment. People accept what they are told without question unless they are trained from childhood, or learn through experience not to. People also don’t want to be wrong and will jump through a lot of logical nonsense reasoning hoops to justify an earlier decision.
People aren’t defending Cruz so much as they are defending the earlier decisions to initially support, and continue to support Cruz.
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That group is shrinking and about all is left is those who so jumped the shark they have no choice but to continue defending themselves.
Cruz kind of blew it for them as well though, if Trump loses they and Cruz will be forever known as Benedict Arnolds who put the final nail in our country’s coffin. Of course the rest of us will pay dearly as well.
If Trump wins and does just a fraction of what he has said, he will have done more for our country than any President in most of our lifetimes. They will be scorned.
Their only hope is Trump wins and governs like a liberal. They’ll still be hated and scorned by a lot of people but they will have a good percentage of people who will think they were right.
They I believe are putting their hopes in a Trump loss or a Trump liberal.
I think they’re too stupid to see the part about Hillary winning the Presidency and what it will do to them and their hero, much less what it will do to our country.
It’s really sad though the two things they’re hanging their hat on is the same as setting our country on fire.
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“It’s really sad though the two things they’re hanging their hat on is the same as setting our country on fire.”
That’s the self-serving aspect of over a hundred years socialism on display right there.
Next door, in a post in the last day or so, SD points to around 1990 when our economics changed, but that change would have been rejected immediately if it weren’t for the constant indoctrination people have received from childhood starting in the late 1880’s.
What is done today will impact future generations without them knowing and lied about in college classrooms, but “Ted Cruz” the man will be forgotten in 40 years, along with everyone that supported him and those that didn’t.
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There are people a lot smarter than me when it comes to history and politics that are saying he will remembered after we’re all dead, but not in a good way. He’ll be remembered in a way that politicians will be taught is a sure fire way to ruin your political career.
I do though understand what you are saying and that is why I hope and pray Trump is the real deal. We have all these “safe place” idiots and white guilt idiots because of the indoctrination. Even if we weren’t on our last thread holding this country together with immigration, the PC bs would destroy us totally within 40 years.
One other thing about indoctrination, Cruz sure got indoctrinated on how to not take responsibility and blame others for your own failure, not to mention the precious snowflake indoctrination.
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Politicians are remembered if they are great, or if they are flops. Neville Chamberlain (Peace in our time) comes to mind. He even made it into the last season of Downton Abbey.
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More recent is a lot of talk of Rockefeller in 1964.
Maybe Cruz should have looked at that not long ago history.
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Limbaugh was just talking about the 1980 election, and Teddy Kennedy’s attempt to win the Dem nomination from Carter.
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Pledge? What pledge? Trump cancelled the pledge.
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I didn’t hear a cancellation of the pledge. The pledge Mr. Cruz signed was between him, and the Republican Party. Even if Donald Trump says “I don’t need his support”, that doesn’t cancel the pledge that Cruz signed with the RNC.
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Here is the pledge that Trump signed. All of the candidates signed the same pledge – to the Republican National Committee.
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And here I thought this thread would be about parsing the dead but here we have a post I care about. My point: let’s remember that the ONLY purpose of these ‘pledges’ was to corral Trump when the RINO elite still though he was going to lose. It wasn’t to stop the Fair Haired boys, it was to corral Trump. Watch the elitists welcome Cruz on a Cross back to the chaffing fold.
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Funny that you mention “parsing the dead”. This post attracted more readers than just about any other. Apparently somebod(ies) were curious.
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Yeah. me included. Wet paint signs and all.
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Trump ‘cancelled’ the pledge by winning. Soon as he became THE hi-scorer the rest was moot.
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Ted’s pledge is still binding. He can’t seek to run as a write-in, or as an independent, or for another party. And he is bound to endorse the nominee of the party (of course, he won’t be held to any of it).
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Ummmmm…when 38% of the Florida voters agreed that Cruz could be the Zodiac killer I think that was a signal his campaign was pretty much o-v-e-r.
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His campaign is surreptitiously encouraging write-in votes. Definitely in opposition to his pledge. It’s another one of those “definition of is” moments. He can claim that he isn’t personally doing it.
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He’d better start considering an alternative way to pay the rent, I don’t think he’ll like what most voters will ‘write in’.
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