A Few Words From a Master Journalist

July 12, 2022
Business

Oct. 21, 1980

CHICAGO, Oct. 17 — “Honey, we’re late,” Nancy Reagan called from what in truth has become the Reagan hearth, the top step of the movable stairs at the door to their waiting campaign jetliner, optimistically dubbed Leadership 80.

But Ronald Reagan was still busy at the office — down on the tarmac at LaGuardia Airport in New York, where he fed a final knock or two on Jimmy Carter to a squinting, listening crush of news reporters.

He finally turned back to Nancy, who waited with a mock-scold smile of “Oh those politicians.” And the Republican candidate for president bounded up the steps, smiling at his wife with the perfect sit-com timing that all the presidential couples, Jimmy and Rosalynn, John and Keke, display across America.

News reporters were astir and skipped this curtain scene. One mellifluous man darted ahead from the pack, back to his seat on the second jet, the Reagan media “zoo” plane, and there revved himself up over the engines to tell of an unusually exciting development.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/11/business/media/a-few-words-from-a-master-journalist.html