Why I was thinking about Carter and Reagan
Ran across this quote while reading a review of the Douglas Brinkley book on Gerald Ford:
Ford — nearly 90 when Brinkley interviewed him — was still smarting over Reagan having challenged him for the Republican nomination in 1976, saying it was "a low-down stunt" that "really burned the hell out of me." Had Reagan earnestly campaigned for the incumbent instead of giving him a lukewarm endorsement after losing the GOP nomination, Ford said he could have beaten Carter....
Carter and Ford developed a warm working relationship that Brinkley describes in some detail. (Carter also has harbored bitter feelings toward Reagan, whose administration broke with the custom of giving national security briefings to former presidents. Several years after losing his 1980 bid for a second term, Carter told me, "I don't know who hates him more, me or Jerry Ford.")
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