It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
MagnumOpus
Imho is so stated right here and covers the entire thread's discussions, and it also is a discussion list of various people's views and opinions.
MagnumOpus
Nope---have not change the story or opinion, as the record shows Ronnie is a Certified Mason. imho
“What deal?” I responded, genuinely surprised that the two parties were already working out details. In addition to the vice-presidential slot, Reagan said, “Ford wants Kissinger as secretary of state and Greenspan at treasury.” My instant response was, “That is the craziest deal I have ever heard of.” And it was.
--------------
Ronald Reagan’s search for a vice president started as soon as he clinched the nomination with a string of primary victories in the spring of 1980. Before long, a short list of prospective running mates had been put together, including Howard Baker, William Simon, Jack Kemp, Richard Lugar, Paul Laxalt, and George Bush.
------------
This was serious. And so I did something rash: I decided to try to contact George Bush. Until that moment, the campaign inner circle had treated important issues in a collegial manner; there had been no secrets among us. But on this issue, Casey, Meese, Wirthlin, and Deaver were keeping the lid on. If my colleagues could play it close to the vest on such a crucial issue, it was a game that could be played by others as well.
-------------
Sensing an opportunity, I reached for a copy of the platform lying on the coffee table, passed it to him, and said, “Governor, this is your platform, every word of it.” I added that Martin Anderson, Reagan’s chief domestic policy adviser, Peter Hannaford, and I had scrutinized it carefully. “If you could be assured that George Bush would support this platform in every detail,” I asked, “would you reconsider Bush?”
Reagan mulled this over for a moment and then said, deliberately, “Well, if you put it that way, I would agree to reconsider.” The opening emerged.
----------
Reagan glanced around and asked those assembled—a group that included Casey, Meese, Wirthlin, Hannaford, Deaver, and me—"Well, what do we do now?" There was no immediate response. No one offered an alternate plan. No one tossed out a name. Expecting instant opposition, I ventured, "We call Bush." Once more, silence. Reagan again looked at each of us; hearing no objection, he said, "Well, let’s get Bush on the phone."
----------
At precisely 11:38, the phone was in Reagan’s hand; though they barely knew each other, Reagan dove right in. "George," he said warmly, "I would like to go over there and tell them that I am recommending you for vice president. Could I ask you one thing—do I have your permission to make an announcement that you support the platform across the board?" We could hear Bush agreeing at the other end. Reagan then left for the convention center where, shortly after midnight, he took the podium to praise Ford and then to announce his running mate, George Bush.
Jimmy Carter, acceptable to the Old Confederacy, tight with the plutocrats, brought the Presidency into disrepute. He was portrayed as a bible-thumping wimp, not being supposedly able to get the release of 52 U.S. hostages held by Iran. He could not successfully torment the GOP with the dreaded "October Surprise", possible release of the hostages prior to the 1980 Presidential Election. Carter, like every Post-Dallas U.S. President, went along with the JFK cover-up. So, Ronald W. Reagan, going back to his role with-holding JFK witnesses as California Governor(in the New Orleans Jim Garrison probe of Dallas), and Daddy Bush, part of the Dallas episode, were installed as President and Vice President, at the very moment in 1981, when the U.S. hostages were released.
But far beyond their social connection, neither Bush nor Hinckley wanted Ronald Reagan to become president, because Reagan was opposed to tax breaks for the oil industry to which Bush, Hinckley and other Texans were highly dependent.
Neil Bush, a landman for Amoco Oil, told Denver reporters he had met Scott Hinckley at a surprise party at the Bush home January 23, 1981, which was approximately three weeks after the U.S. Department of Energy had begun what was termed a "routine audit" of the books of the Vanderbilt Energy Corporation, the Hinckley oil company. In an incredible coincidence, on the morning of March 30, three representatives of the U.S. Department of Energy told Scott Hinckley, Vanderbilt's vice president of operations, that auditors had uncovered evidence of pricing violations on crude oil sold by the company from 1977 through 1980. The auditors announced that the federal government was considering a penalty of two million dollars. Scott Hinckley reportedly requested "several hours to come up with an explanation" of the serious overcharges. The meeting ended a little more than an hour before John Hinckly Jr. shot President Reagan.