Word: schweikered
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...freshly combed and suited up for a triumphal appearance they would never make, they still seemed an implausible pair. Ronald Reagan was surrounded by his gleaming staff of Californians, and so the anguish of the moment in which he finally lost the nomination was somewhat obscured. But Richard Schweiker was alone; without friends and sycophants, he showed his dismay...
...realization that the ticket was a bust had been evident to Schweiker for at least 24 hours. As soon as Gerald Ford won the vice-presidential rules fight the previous evening, Schweiker had telephoned Reagan with an offer to resign. It was shortly after midnight, and an aide told Schweiker the Governor had gone to sleep. Schweiker urged him to check the bedroom because he had something important to say. He was asked to wait until the next morning, and at breakfast he finally told Reagan, who quickly declined his offer to withdraw. "I'm not going to leave...
...Reagan the danger of the decision had always been personal: that he would lose his cherished credibility. He had at first described the Schweiker move as a way to broaden the party's base for the fall campaign. Now, with the nomination decided, he explained the deal somewhat differently. "We were dead in the water," he conceded. "We had to get some motion, get some delegates...
...Reagan's suite on the last night, Schweiker seemed a rather forlorn figure. He gamely tried to laugh along with some of the inside staff jokes about the Reagan campaign just ended, but mostly he gazed silently into the TV screen. He and Reagan had little to say to each other; there was not a great deal more familiarity between the two men than when Schweiker's name was first proposed and Reagan did not even know who he was. It had been a ruinous mismatch...
...Pennsylvania tally that brought total silence to the room. When Schweiker's fellow Senator Hugh Scott proudly shouted 93 votes for Ford-more than anyone had anticipated-it was clear in the end that Schweiker had not delivered a single extra delegate from his home state. It was a deflating performance, and Reagan noted the moment. "That's the one that did a it," he said. Muttered Schweiker defensively: "A lot of people took a walk...