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In making his first major decision as nominee, Reagan wounded himself twice: first, by demonstrating that he is so anxious to win in November that he was willing to consider delegation of important aspects of his authority as President; second, by having to settle for his No. 2 choice as running mate. Even more embarrassing for him was the fact that the negotiations about Ford quickly leaked, turning that part of the prepackaged convention into an unseemly spectacle.
The risk, moreover, may not have been worth taking. Ford, after all, was the first incumbent President since Herbert Hoover to lose an election, and part of his appeal today is due to nostalgia. In hindsight, particularly because of Carter's shortcomings, Ford seems to have been a better President than he was considered at the time. But he is at odds with Reagan on many questions ranging from the ERA to the Panama Canal. At 67, he could offer the 69-year-old Reagan no help on the age issue; some voters might even have found a Reagan-Ford ticket slightly out of tune with the G.O.P. convention slogan: TOGETHER—A NEW BEGINNING. With Bush, 56, as Reagan's running mate, the G.O.P. ticket may not be so grand, but it is also not so old.
Democrats immediately moved to turn the episode into an issue. Said Democratic National Chairman John White: "It was a massive foul-up, and it's going to hurt him deeply. It raises all kinds of questions about Reagan as a decision maker." But some more neutral political experts thought the contretemps would quickly fade. Said Jonathan Moore, director of Harvard's Institute of Politics: "I don't believe that it will make any difference come November. It is not an issue that will last."
So it was almost by default that the Republicans ended up with what many of them most wanted: a ticket that can be accepted by a broad spectrum, from North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms on the right to New York Senator Jacob Javits on the left. Bush's views on most issues are compatible with Reagan's, yet Bush has a more moderate image than that of the Californian. As a two-term Congressman and former head of the CIA, Bush also brings the ticket much needed experience in Washington, which polls indicate is a major shortcoming for Reagan in the eyes of many voters.
Bush will strengthen the ticket in several large states, including Illinois, Ohio and his home state of Texas. Bush will also give Reagan much needed help in three swing states that G.O.P. strategists consider very important but difficult for their candidates to carry: Michigan and Pennsylvania, where Bush defeated Reagan in the primaries, and New Jersey. All six states are elements in what Reagan's aides call his "redundancy" strategy. This means that Reagan will campaign hard in more states than he needs to win the election—in contrast to Ford's 1976 "big-state" strategy, in which he conceded the cotton South to Carter, made only a pass at the Border states and concentrated on the Midwest, a tactic that may have cost him the election.