"I finally figured out this politics," Ronald Reagan once confided to an associate. "It's like show business. You start with a big opening act, coast, and close with a great crescendo." For the conservative Republican star, the opening act is scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. this Thursday in the barnlike ballroom of the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., with a four-minute announcement of his candidacy for President. He plans to say that the country has lost its direction and the people sense a need for fundamental changes. Next, the script calls for Reagan and Wife Nancy to make quick campaign visits to four cities in states that have crucially important early primaries—Miami, Manchester, N.H., Charlotte, N.C., and Chicago—before returning on Friday to Burbank, Calif., where advance men will have mobilized a large welcoming crowd. Then Reagan will ease up on his public politicking and coast a bit until January, when he intends to begin an all-out campaign in hopes of knocking President Gerald Ford out of the race by late spring.
In another election year, an insurgent's challenge to his party's incumbent President would be politically suicidal, or at best quixotic. But 1976 will be anything but a typical political year. Disturbed by inflation, unemployment, crime and the sprawl of Big Government, Americans seem to be growing more conservative. Much of their dissatisfaction is focused on the politicians in Washington. Ford has been weakened further by his bumbling Cabinet shake-up of two weeks ago, his fumbling performance on the hustings and the disarray in his campaign organization. The beneficiary is Reagan, who, despite his years in the public eye as a Hollywood actor and California Governor, is viewed as a fresh face in presidential politics because he cannot be identified with the problems in Washington. Professionals in both parties give him an outside chance of carrying off the nomination at the G.O.P.'s convention in Kansas City, Mo., in August.
The Californian held off on his campaign announcement for months. He did a lot of relaxing at his 620-acre ranch near Santa Barbara, grooming his two thoroughbred horses, remodeling his adobe ranch house and acting the part of a disinterested citizen awaiting a summons to national service. The stance was half performance, half genuine, but it also served the practical purposes of generating drama and allowing him to earn money. Since leaving the Governor's office in January, he has written a weekly column published in more than 200 newspapers, recorded daily five-minute radio talks broadcast by about 200 stations, and made more than a hundred speeches to Republican audiences for fees of up to $5,000 plus expenses. In all, he grossed about $1 million from those activities, a nice raise from his $49,100 salary as Governor.