WI: Gerald Ford runs as Ronald Reagan's vice-president

Read this in the "President Ronald Reagan" DBWI - which seems to have gone the inevitable way DBWIs go about three or four times now :rolleyes: - that Reagan was considering having Ford as his running mate in 1980, and that Bush was an eleventh-hour decision. I'd never heard that before.

So, what if it had happened? Reagan-Ford '80.
 
Yes, Reagan privately sugested the idea to Ford a month before the convention and Ford said NO. Ford apparently suggested to Reagan that he choose Bush. Ford was asked again at the convention and considered it out of party loyalty but didn't want to do it and didn't think that it was a good idea. Remember, Ford did not like Reagan and blamed Reagan for his loss in '76. I was a youth delegate to that convention and thought "no way in he!! would Ford agree to be Reagan's VP. A good book to read regarding this and other Jerry Ford topics is Thomas DeFrank's "Write It When I'm Gone". Personally, I anticipated that Reagan would choose Kemp, though I hoped he would choose Bush or Baker for VP position.
 
Yes, Reagan privately sugested the idea to Ford a month before the convention and Ford said NO. Ford apparently suggested to Reagan that he choose Bush. Ford was asked again at the convention and considered it out of party loyalty but didn't want to do it and didn't think that it was a good idea. Remember, Ford did not like Reagan and blamed Reagan for his loss in '76.

Ford didn't say no, the price for having him on the ticket was to high for Reagan to pay, Ford wanted the power to control key executive branch appointments (ie Henry Kissinger as Secretary of State and Alan Greenspan as Treasury Secretary) and a kind of "co-presidency"
 
Ford didn't say no, the price for having him on the ticket was to high for Reagan to pay, Ford wanted the power to control key executive branch appointments (ie Henry Kissinger as Secretary of State and Alan Greenspan as Treasury Secretary) and a kind of "co-presidency"

Yeah that's more or less how it went down. Reagan rejected the deal mainly on the basis of co-presidency.
 
Correct. Ford said no in June when 1st asked, and when asked again at the convention hesitated to say no again (this is politics afterall) but set the bar so high as to bust any deal.
 
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