A History of Conventions: 1980 (the Democrats)
At the end of May I began a series on the presidential conventions of the latter half of the 20th century. I began the series with the Republican Convention of 1980. That convention took place in Detroit on July 14-17. Four weeks later, August 11-14, the Democrats met in New York City.
9:02 p.m. Jimmy Carter, under the extreme pressure of the most important speech of his career, did what came natural. He tinkered with his speech in the minutes before giving it. He stood in a private box off the main concourse of Madison Square Garden, pencil in hand, and crossed out a few sentences of his prepared speech. He then wrote notes in the margin. These particular notes focused on his accomplishments in office. The notes read: “nine million new jobs added” and “inflation dropped from 18 percent first quarter to 7 percent” and “comprehensive energy policy – now importing 20 percent less oil, or 1 and 1/2 millions of barrels of oil less per day than the day I took office.”
President Carter’s penchant for note taking was the stuff of legend. “Jimmy Carter was the ultimate note-taker,” Douglas Brinkley, Carter’s sympathetic biographer, wrote in The Unfinished Presidency: Jimmy Carter’s Journey Beyond the White House. “He took more notes in one day than the more hands-on presidents – Clinton, Kennedy, and Wilson – took in a month. He took more notes in one month than the more detached presidents – Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, and Cal Coolidge – took in an entire administration.” President Carter’s original convention speech, with all of his deletions and additions, can be viewed in the presidential library at the Carter Center, Atlanta, Georgia.
The private box in which Carter tinkered with his speech belonged to the owner of the New York Knicks, David “Sonny” Werblin. Pictures of great Knicks dominated the wall space. There was a photo of Willis Reed. There was a photo of Walter “Clyde” Frazier. There was a photo of Vernon Earl Monroe.
Not far from Sonny Werblin’s private box a podium had been erected. The podium stood some twenty feet above the floor of Madison Square Garden. The floor of the arena was jammed with delegates. All the delegates at that moment, and anyone watching the event on television, were viewing a propaganda film entitled “The Vision of Jimmy Carter” on the big screen, located directly behind the raised podium.
The film began with a helicopter view of monuments in Washington, from the Washington Monument in all of its verticality to the Jefferson Monument and its inspiration to the Lincoln Monument and its gravity. A narrator spoke as the Lincoln Monument faded from view, “No one who’s not had the responsibility can really understand what it’s like to be the president.”
In the next scene on film President Carter strolled into his office. There was purpose in his stroll. There was power. There was poise. This was the president, the film hinted, of self-assurance.
9:03 p.m. In Sonny Werblin’s box, the president of self-assurance wasn’t listening to the narrator. He wasn’t watching the huge screen. He continued to scribble notes into the margin of his speech. These particular notes focused on his Republican challenger, Ronald Reagan. The notes read: “promises to abolish the Departments of Education and Energy” and “will slash solar energy incentives – will abolish synthetic fuels program – will eliminate 55-mile speed limit – will gut the Clean Air Act.” Carter then wrote a statement in capital letters: “WILL UNLEASH THE OIL COMPANIES – THAT’S THE TOTALITY OF HIS ENERGY POLICY.”
Meanwhile, on the big screen located directly behind the raised podium, the propaganda film continued with photographs of past presidents. There was a photo of Lincoln with a narrator quoting one of Lincoln’s contemporaries, “‘I never did see or converse with so weak and imbecile a man; the weakest man I have ever known. If I wanted to paint a despot, a man with the perfect disregard for every constitutional right of the people, I would paint the hideous, apelike form of Abraham Lincoln.’”
The Lincoln photographed faded and a photograph of Ulysses S. Grant came into view. A narrator quoted the Republican platform of 1872, during Grant’s re-election campaign, “‘He has used the public service of the government as a machinery of corruption and personal influence, and has interfered with tyrannical arrogance in the public affairs of states and municipalities.’”
The Grant photograph faded and a photograph of Harry Truman came into view. A narrator quoted a famous journalist of the Truman era, “‘Mr. Truman is not performing, and gives no evidence of his ability to perform, the functions of the Commander-in-Chief. At the very center of the Truman administration there is a vacuum of responsibility and authority.’”
Gerald Rafshoon, the filmmaker and President Carter’s communications director, explained the direction of the film. His reflections can be found in the presidential library at the Carter Center, in the Oral History of Rafshoon, Gerald. “We wanted to say to America: Hey, there’s the image, particularly the negative spin, and then there’s the reality. We ended with the photo of Truman because, more than any other president, he epitomized this dichotomy. His image in America, at the time of his re-election, was rock-bottom. And yet the reality of his presidency is that he met crisis after crisis and succeeded on levels that we’re just now giving him credit for.”
9:06 p.m. In Sonny Werblin’s private box, Jimmy Carter continued to cross out sentences in his prepared speech and write notes in the margin. These particular notes still focused on his Republican challenger. The notes read: “his fantasy America – inner-city laborers do not exist, working women are ignored, the elderly do not need Medicare, the young do not need help in getting a better education.” Carter then added a statement in capital letters: “IN HIS FANTASY AMERICA, ALL PROBLEMS HAVE SIMPLE SOLUTIONS – SIMPLE AND WRONG.”
Meanwhile, on the big screen located directly behind the raised podium, the propaganda film continued with Carter on the campaign trail. A huge number of supporters, some 50,000 strong, filled a stadium in Tuscumbia, Alabama. Off to one side, a dozen or so demonstrators wore the white sheets and hoods of the Klu Klux Klan. The Klansmen held up a banner, “Reagan for President.”
According to the propaganda film (a copy of which can be viewed in the presidential library at the Carter Center), President Carter interrupted his campaign speech. He pointed at the banner. “There are still a few in the South, indeed around the country, who practice cowardice and who counsel fear and hatred,” he fumed. “They say we ought to be afraid of each other, that whites ought to hate and be afraid of blacks, and that blacks ought to hate and be afraid of whites. As a Southerner, it makes me feel angry. As the first man from the Deep South in almost 140 years to be president of this nation, I say that these people in white sheets do not understand our region and what it’s been through, they do not understand what our country stands for, they do not understand that the South and all of America must move forward.”
The crowd in Tuscumbia, according to the propaganda film, responded in a boisterous and extended ovation. The crowd watching the film in Madison Square Garden did the same.
Filmmaker Gerald Rafshoon explained, “This was made to be the highlight, the crux, of the film. It was supposed to be President Carter identifying both himself and his American vision.”
9:08 p.m. In Sonny Werblin’s private box, Jimmy Carter continued to cross out sentences in his prepared speech and write notes in the margin. He still, clearly, had Ronald Reagan on his mind. One note read: “will enter America into unnecessary wars.” He circled that statement. Another note read: “The life of every human being on Earth can depend on the experience and judgment and vigilance of the person in the Oval Office. The president’s power for building and his power for destruction are awesome. And the power’s greatest exactly where the stakes are highest – in matters of war and peace.”
Meanwhile, on the big screen located directly behind the raised podium, the propaganda film continued with a scene from Camp David, as the leaders of Egypt and Israel reached agreement. The film zoomed in on President Carter smiling in between the scowling Menachem Begin and the anxious Anwar Sadat. The narrator of the film asked, “Can you picture Reagan getting Begin and Sadat together?”
Filmmaker Gerald Rafshoon explained, “These propaganda films – they're supposed to be feel good, warm and fuzzy. Families and picnics and presidents in splendor. Fine. We made that kind of film in 1976. The Reagan people made that kind of film for their convention a month earlier. With this one, I just thought to myself: Let’s talk some substance. Let’s hit the people with a question. Would Reagan have the magic to bring Begin and Sadat together?”
Inside Madison Square Garden, a floor full of delegates offered an answer to Rafshoon’s question. “NO!” thousands of delegates screamed.
Jimmy Carter did not hear the screaming delegates. In Sonny Werblin’s box he wrote a final note in the margin of his speech. The note read: “experience is the best guide to right decisions. I am wiser tonight than I was four years ago.”
At that moment in time, 9:09 p.m., two of Carter’s most trusted colleagues entered the private box. Vice President Walter Mondale whispered a pep talk into Carter’s ear, “Go after Reagan. His is a make-believe world, a world of good guys and bad guys, where politicians shoot first and ask questions later.”
Rosalynn Carter did not offer a pep talk. She offered a spirited kiss.
Seconds later, the band at Madison Square Garden played “Hail to the Chief.” The screen up high went dark. The lights in the Garden blazed in full splendor. And there, standing at the raised podium, was the man of the moment, the president of the United States, with the first lady and the vice president a few steps behind. The time was 9:10 p.m.
(To read earlier parts of this series, please click on the link “More articles by Brian Josepher” below. You will see the “History of Conventions” articles to the right.) |
