Letter from Washington

Kansas City—A week of funny hats, horns, the Michigan fight song, “California Here I Come,” ebullience, tears. For many—the Ford family, for instance—there may never be a happier week; But through it all ran a distinct sense of sadness, a feeling of loss, a memory of other times, of former enthusiasms and battles that would never be felt or fought again. There were the old warhorses, Barry Goldwater and Nelson Rockefeller, plodding through their speeches. One of the most controversial figures in the Republican Party just a few years back, Jacob Javits, never managed to finish his listless speech, and no one seemed to notice. There were the men who weren’t there, Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew, and their stand-in, Alf Landon, a dim figure from a shadowy Republican past that few remember. And, of course, there was the defeat and the departure of Ronald Reagan, who said goodbye with a grace and dignity which may never be equaled. It was an emotional farewell, one which brought tears, for it was a farewell to an era of American politics which had shaped the lives and the beliefs of many—perhaps a majority—of those who call themselves conservative Republicans. When Reagan left, he took that era with him, and many who watched him go believe the Republican Party can never be the same again.

The speeches were generally disappointing. Howard Baker’s keynote address, John Connally’s surprisingly non-eloquent effort, and Robert Dole’s standard presidential puff-piece—all smacked too heavily of excessive White House input. But that all became irrelevant on the last night, when Reagan said his farewell and Ford gave the best speech of his career. True, on paper, Ford’s acceptance speech is completely unremarkable—a typical all-things-to-all-men effort, vague promises interspersed with typical political hack rhetorical flourishes. But it was the manner in which it was delivered that impressed. “For the first time,” says a newsman not particularly fond of Ford, “he sounded like a man in control.”

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Presidential Election

Kansas City—A week of funny hats, horns, the Michigan fight song, “California Here I Come,” ebullience, tears. For many—the Ford family, for instance—there may never be a happier week; But through it all ran a distinct sense of sadness, a feeling of loss, a memory of other times, of former enthusiasms and battles that would never be felt or fought again. There were the old warhorses, Barry Goldwater and Nelson Rockefeller, plodding through their speeches. One of the most controversial figures in the Republican Party just a few years back, Jacob Javits, never managed to finish his listless speech, and no one seemed to notice. There were the men who weren’t there, Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew, and their stand-in, Alf Landon, a dim figure from a shadowy Republican past that few remember. And, of course, there was the defeat and the departure of Ronald Reagan, who said goodbye with a grace and dignity which may never be equaled. It was an emotional farewell, one which brought tears, for it was a farewell to an era of American politics which had shaped the lives and the beliefs of many—perhaps a majority—of those who call themselves conservative Republicans. When Reagan left, he took that era with him, and many who watched him go believe the Republican Party can never be the same again.

The speeches were generally disappointing. Howard Baker’s keynote address, John Connally’s surprisingly non-eloquent effort, and Robert Dole’s standard presidential puff-piece—all smacked too heavily of excessive White House input. But that all became irrelevant on the last night, when Reagan said his farewell and Ford gave the best speech of his career. True, on paper, Ford’s acceptance speech is completely unremarkable—a typical all-things-to-all-men effort, vague promises interspersed with typical political hack rhetorical flourishes. But it was the manner in which it was delivered that impressed. “For the first time,” says a newsman not particularly fond of Ford, “he sounded like a man in control.”