When ‘A Time for Choosing’ Became the Time for Reagan

When ‘A Time for Choosing’ Became the Time for Reagan

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/11/ronald-reagan-a-time-for-choosing-speech-made-history/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=NR%20Daily%20Mond

Excerpt: What few viewers knew that night in October 1964 was that Reagan was not relying on a script or Teleprompter. At just after 18 minutes into the event, the camera shot over his right shoulder reveals that on the podium, Reagan was using note cards. What we can’t see in the grainy picture is what was probably written on those cards: Reagan’s own shorthand for speeches. Martin Anderson, his White House domestic-policy adviser, later recounted Reagan’s unique note-card method. Reagan would list words, numbers, abbreviations, or even what amounted to hieroglyphics in precise lines, the items separated by dots on a 4-by-6-inch card. Each mark represented a phrase, a sentence or two, or even complete paragraphs. The symbol or word would help Reagan recall a thought, a section of a previous speech, facts and figures supporting his arguments, or a story to personalize an issue. Reagan’s acting years reciting dialogue and his time as GE’s spokesman, talking to different audiences in various circumstances, honed this practice of relying on note cards. However only a facile, well-informed mind could transform those scribbles into a masterful address.[I never saw this speech, being then in Infantry training at Camp Geiger, NC. In the Spring of 1964, prior to enlisting, I had gone door to door urging neighbors to vote for Goldwater, though I wouldn’t personally be old enough to vote until 1968–and I wouldn’t be able to then, either, because I wasn’t registered anywhere and was then located in Vietnam. Though I’d not seen or read this speech, I heard many of the phrases in it quoted in later years. This wonderful essay really tells us a lot about what sort of man Reagan was. Ron P.]