BOB DOLE : 1995 Clinton's Comeback

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In this third episode in our three part mini - series on the 1976 Presidential Election, we get in the trenches and watch the campaign play out.  For the Republicans if it can go wrong it does go wrong, from the audio going out at the Presidential Debate, to the gaffes of "No Domination of Eastern Europe by the Soviets", to the number of dead "in Democrat Wars in this century", these two giants  of Republican political history, Gerald Ford and Bob Dole,  seem to blunder from one mistake to the next.  However, the polls keep closing. 

Which has the back and forth between the two sides pretty darn exciting to watch as they criss cross the country campaigning to the masses and in one case giving the unlikeliest of interviews, from the unlikeliest of candidates, to the unlikeliest of magazines. Yes, Jimmy Carter actually sits down to talk politics, the Presidency, and the campaign, with Playboy. 

By the time we get to election day both sides have given it their all and Gerald Ford has totally lost his voice. In what would be one of the closest elections in history and the election that had begun with the biggest deficits between two candidates in memory. Gerald Ford may have come up short but he had nothing to be ashamed of considering the size of the hole he had found himself in.  We close out this episode on the dawn of a new era in American History, an era that will see some of our lowest moments, and our coldest moments in the history of the Cold War, and then one tremendous triumph made possible by the hard work of 9 successive Presidents whose lives and experiences had been molded by the bloodiest war in World History.  And all of that is yet to come. 

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In our second episode of the three part look at the 1976 Campaign we head into the aftermath of the divided Republican Convention after Gerald Ford has secured the nomination. Ronald Reagan lets President Ford know that he does not want to be the Vice Presidential nominee and that decision opens the door for my personal hero to walk on to center stage in the Republican Party. A spot that Senator Bob Dole of Kansas would occupy for the next two decades. 

Then Gerald Ford will accept his party's nomination for President and invite his vanquished opponent down to the stage to make some appropriate remarks. Ronald Reagan would give arguably the greatest speech of his entire career that night, and everyone in the convention hall would be left with the feeling they may have nominated the wrong man, 

Gerald Ford would then head off into the fall campaign to face Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter in what appeared to everyone as a hopeless situation. Ford was 33 points down in the polls. What we shall then bare witness to was arguably one of the greatest near comebacks in all of American history, as we will learn in the next episode. 

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Campaign 1976!!! It is one of the most interesting Presidential elections in all of American History. It is also the gateway to the end of one era, that of the Vietnam - Watergate years and the start of the Reagan Era. It is a Presidential Campaign that early on featured figures from the battles of the 1960's and 1970s, from George Wallace  to Hubert Humphrey and George McGovern, to the men who would dominate the next era of American History in Gerald Ford, Bob Dole, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. 

It will feature the last Convention battle for an undecided nomination at the Republican National Convention in Kansas City, and after the battle is finally won, it will bring about a moment that every American remembers when Gerald Ford would invite Ronald Reagan to the floor for an impromptu speech, that would be considered widely as the best speech ever delivered by Ronald Reagan.  After all of that, Gerald Ford would start out his fall campaign 33 points behind the Democratic ticket of Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale. 

This is the first of three episodes that will tell that story. In this episode we take you through the primary campaign and profile both Governors Jimmy Carter of Georgia, and Ronald Reagan of California and we will hear from President Gerald Ford too.  We will take you on a wild ride to the Republican National Convention for all of its drama that captivated the nation like a convention of old. 

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This is a fun episode looking back at one of the purely fun events of the past half century. It was the Bicentennial of Declaration of Independence, the celebration of our nation's founding. It was an event like no other in our history and Gerald Ford, a man who had not sought the Presidency at all,  got to enjoy presiding over it all. 

He gives all appearances of having enjoyed every moment of it too.

So in this episode we simply hop on for the ride as we open up the Smithsonian's New Air and Space Museum, enjoy the tall ships as they sailed through New York Harbour, enjoyed a celebratory event at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on July 3rd, with two speeches on America, one given by President Gerald Ford and the other by a football All American,  Heisman Trophy Winner, and one of the NFL's leading all time rushers, former Buffalo Bills Running Back O.J. Simpson.  ( at that moment no one knew what the future would hold for him) 

Then we follow President Ford to the great city of Philadelphia, to hear a speech at Freedom Hall by the President to commemorate this historic moment on July 4, 1976. 

Then we head back to the nation's capital to welcome the most famous and perhaps most unlikely of guests who will stop over to help our nation celebrate its 200 years of freedom. A royal visit from none other than Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth the Second of United Kingdom, the monarch of the very nation whose yolk we had thrown off exactly 200 years and two days before.....

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John Jenrette , former United States Congressman from the 6th District of South Carolina, passed away on St. Patrick's Day 2023.  A fitting day for a man who  was as colorful a character as has ever set foot in Congress and who  was also stunningly effective. John Jenrette was the only native Horry County, South Carolinian to ever serve in Congress until our brand new Congressman Russell Fry was elected this past November. 

Our podcast is planning on spending our next season chronicling his enormously impactful life and career as we also look back at Former President Jimmy Carter who was endorsed by Congressman John Jenrette in 1975, the first member of Congress to do so.  We hope you will tune in to our 10th season of shows focused on John Jenrette in late April but on this day of his passing we hope you will listen in on our salute to this celebrated and often controversial Congressman. 

A man who made enormous mistakes, true enough, but who made his district and our nation a much better place to live for all of us too. Our heartfelt condolences go out to the entire Jenrette Family and friends at this sad moment. Please keep them in your prayers.  John Jenrette was 86 years old. 

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From Wikipedia:

According to the Cold War scholar John Lewis Gaddis in his book The Cold War: A New History (2005), "Leonid Brezhnev had looked forward, Anatoly Dobrynin recalls, to the 'publicity he would gain... when the Soviet public learned of the final settlement of the postwar boundaries for which they had sacrificed so much'... '[Instead, the Helsinki Accords] gradually became a manifesto of the dissident and liberal movement'... What this meant was that the people who lived under these [communist] systems — at least the more courageous — could claim official permission to say what they thought."[20]

In what began under President Richard Nixon as what Henry Kissinger called "grandstand play to the left."  Ended up under President Gerald Ford as one of the first meaningful attempts to assure human rights through out the World. It would be the agreement that many credit as creating those first cracks in the Communist World. Here we will show you many of the benefits of the Helsinki Accords that still serve Europe today and we will hear President Ford's address to the conference in 1975 in Helsinki, Finland. 

The Accords had agreements in four areas known as baskets, explained here by Wikipedia: 

"There were four groupings or baskets. In the first basket, the "Declaration on Principles Guiding Relations between Participating States" (also known as "The Decalogue") enumerated the following 10 points:

1. Sovereign equality, respect for the rights inherent in sovereignty
2. Refraining from the threat or use of force
3. Inviolability of frontiers
4. Territorial integrity of states
5. Peaceful settlement of disputes
6. Non-intervention in internal affairs
7. Respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief
8. Equal rights and self-determination of peoples
9. Co-operation among States
10. Fulfillment in good faith of obligations under international law

The second basket promised economic, scientific, and technological cooperation; facilitating business contacts and industrial cooperation; linking together transportation networks; and increasing the flow of information. The third basket involved commitments to improve the human context of family reunions, marriages and travel. It also sought to improve the conditions of journalists and expand cultural exchanges. The fourth basket dealt with procedures to monitor implementation, and to plan future meetings.[4]" 

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From Wikipedia:

The Mayaguez incident took place between Kampuchea (now Cambodia) and the United States from 12 to 15 May 1975, less than a month after the Khmer Rouge took control of the capital Phnom Penh ousting the U.S.-backed Khmer Republic. After the Khmer Rouge seized the U.S. merchant vessel SS Mayaguez in a disputed maritime area, the U.S. mounted a hastily-prepared rescue operation. U.S. Marines recaptured the ship and attacked the island of Koh Tang where it was believed that the crew were being held as hostages.

Encountering stronger than expected defences on Koh Tang, three United States Air Force helicopters were destroyed during the initial assault and the Marines fought a desperate day-long battle with the Khmer Rouge before being evacuated. The Mayaguez's crew were released unharmed by the Khmer Rouge shortly after the attack on Koh Tang began. The names of the Americans killed, including three Marines left behind on Koh Tang after the battle and subsequently executed by the Khmer Rouge, are the last names on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

This episode is that story. It features the news coverage of the time and some interviews with soldiers who were there as it all unfolded. In many ways, it was the final battle of the Vietnam War for America. 

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In this episode we look at three of the major events of the Gerald Ford Administration that people will remember.

 First off Gerald Ford had to find a person to fill the office of Vice President of the United States. It would be only the second time the 25th amendment would be used, and the last time it was used. He would select New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller to serve in that position. Rockefeller was one of the major political figures of the 1960's and 1970's and represented a wing of the Republican Party that does not exist any longer. He was a liberal Republican.  Here you will hear his acceptance of the nomination and listen in on the opening of his hearings to take the job. 

Then we will move on to the financial meltdown in New York City. It was the moment that the Big Apple, almost went under. The employees of the city were actually often endangered of not getting paid if they did not cash their checks early in the morning. That is how serious the situation got before the Federal Government helped them. However, before Gerald Ford would agree to do that he insisted that they come up with a plan and bring it to the Federal Government. A novel idea during a time when the Federal Government had often been the ones insisting on the plan and guidelines that all the other levels of government had to follow. This plan did resolve the issues and today New York City is one of America's most prosperous cities, or at least it was. 

Then finally we look back at the only appointment to the Supreme Court President Ford got to make. It would turn out to be an important one because John Paul Stevens would go on to become the the third longest serving Justice in Supreme Court history.  We will look back at his remarkable tenure and his long and illustrious life as one of America's leading legal experts. 

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On April 30, 1975, The North Vietnamese Army invaded Saigon and the war in Vietnam ended. While it was not a defeat for the United States since President Nixon had brokered a peace in January of 1973, and we had left, it sure felt like one. 

Gerald Ford , who had inherited the Presidency at the end of the Watergate legal process ( A process  we have shown that was riddled with alleged prosecutorial misconduct) was forced to watch helplessly as the city was overrun and we had to evacuate our Embassy. 

President Ford had wanted to live up to the promises we had made when President Nixon had negotiated our exit from the country.  However, Congress had cut all funding to the nation and refused to allow President Ford to spend any money to even offer air support for the South Vietnamese Army. It was a shameful abandonment to an ally that had trusted us. 

Seven days later, President Gerald Ford faced the television cameras and the Washington Press Corp. This is that press conference. It was a real symbol that the war was finally over as Ford actually has to answer a wide variety of questions on subjects that are very far ranging. It is a Press Conference that gives you a feel for just how many different issues the President has to deal with at any given time. It also gives you a feel for the President himself, and how he made decisions, and how open he tried to be with the American People, in contrast to several of his predecessors in that office. 

It is also , in a brief answer to a question, one of the first times you hear the President firmly state to the nation that the war in Vietnam is over for America. 

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In this episode we hear from both former President Gerald Ford and his wife Betty Ford from an in-depth interview from a 1996 CNN Special "Riding the Tiger".  In it they discuss the feelings they had as they assumed the Presidency in the most difficult of circumstances, why he decided to grant former President Nixon a pardon, and how they dealt with the traumatizing two assassination attempts. The only two assassination attempts committed by women, Squeaky Fromme, and Sarah Jane Moore. 

This episode will also have the news footage of the times and an incredible CNN interview with one of the attempted assassins herself, Sarah Jane Moore. The Ford's themselves share the story with an incredible amount of humor and grace.  

Then we look back at this most impressive of First Ladies, Betty Ford. She was strong, independent, and faced life with an amazing combination of strength, transparency,  and vulnerability. Traits  we rarely see in politics any longer. She changed the role of the First Lady more profoundly than just about any First Lady up to that time. She shared the ups and downs of her life battling breast cancer, dealing with rebellious teenage children, and then her own personal battle with addiction. It is an interesting look at a fascinating an admirable lady. 

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