Just heard from my friend Ben Elliott, the man who hired me onto the Reagan speechwriting staff lo these many years ago. Ben has since gone on to a remarkable career on the southern end of Manhattan Island (Goldman, the Exchange, and now Merrill), and he remains warm, funny, and meticulous on all points. Which brings me to the current matter. Somehow or other, it got started on the Internet that Ben wrote President Reagan’s acceptance speech at the 1980 convention. He didn’t. He did participate in drafting the President acceptance speech at the convention four years later.
There. Through yours truly, Ben has now corrected the record, putting up a post that the Googlers from now to the very end of time will be able to pull up.