Word: schweikered
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...week long Reagan and his bombshell choice for Vice President, Pennsylvania's liberal Senator Richard Schweiker, worked valiantly to make "something happen." Convinced that Ford had been moving toward a narrow, but near certain first-ballot victory, Reagan and Campaign Manager John Sears (see box) had resorted to a desperate gamble. The Schweiker selection, they had hoped, would throw the race into confusion, check the Ford buildup, and give Reagan a chance to break through in the only area where enough wavering Ford supporters and uncommitted delegates seemed ripe for plucking: the large Northeast delegations of New York...
Before any sallies into the Northeast could be helpful, Reagan had to nail down his own strength in the South. In a visit to Jackson, Miss., he and Schweiker reassured 13 restless Alabama delegates, who stayed with the ticket. But the two were much less successful in trying to convince the vital Mississippi delegation that Schweiker had shed his liberal horns and that no basic ideological split remained between the two running mates...
...Rollie is just there to mingle at cocktail parties. Whatever the internal dynamic, though, every one of their major sources is with the Ford camp: Alexander Haig, Donald Rumsfeld, Melvin Laird. They've buried Reagan more times this year than they resurrected Muskie in '72, and while claiming the Schweiker gambit was Reagan's only hope to stave off Invincible Jerry, they say it won't make any difference...
...rest of his electoral votes, he would have to count on huge majorities in ethnic centers in the industrial North--states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Ohio. And on the important "social" issues which might appeal to that constituency--amnesty, abortion, busing, prayer in the schools, etc.--Schweiker's views are in perfect accordance with Reagan's. In such a campaign--which would bear an eerie resemblance to Nixon's 1972 "acid, amnesty and abortion" strategy--Schweiker could be a big help...
...probably wouldn't actually work in November--the country's not as right-wing as it was four years ago--but it may be the Republicans' best hope. the Schweiker choice has already had some beneficial effects for Reagan's candidacy; as Sears promised, the delegate count has been thrown into utter confusion, and Ford's momentum has been stalled. More importantly perhaps, the president has been pressured into a clumsy vice presidential selection process, a pale imitation of Carter's smooth, professional operation of a month ago. Reagan emerges from the affair as the confident man of action...