‘Meet the Press’ transcript for May 20, 2007

SEN. DODD: Two white—two white-haired candidates.

MR. GINGRICH: I, I am studying—I am studying Chris’ campaign. If there’s a big enough market among Republicans for a really white-haired candidate...

SEN. DODD: We got it.

MR. GINGRICH: ...then I may, I may...

SEN. DODD: How about a ticket?

MR. GINGRICH: I’ll—I did—we did talk earlier about the idea of the nine dialogues of 90 minutes each from Labor Day to the election, and I think we may have at least one guy over here who...

SEN. DODD: I think it’s a great idea.

MR. GINGRICH: ...leans towards that idea.

SEN. DODD: No moderator, Tim, though. We don’t want to exclude you, but the idea of having two of us have a conversation about national issues in separate one hour discussions through nine weeks between September and November, an intelligent, thoughtful debate where we listen to each other, might be an interesting idea.

MR. GINGRICH: But if—I promise, if after the September 27^th American Solutions workshop, I do decide to run, I will come back and be on MEET THE PRESS.

MR. RUSSERT: So you’re thinking about running?

MR. GINGRICH: Well, I’m thinking about thinking about running. But I’m—I won’t do anything at all about the possibility of running until after September 29^th when we have our second workshop.

MR. RUSSERT: So by October you should have a decision?

MR. GINGRICH: By, by October I’m confident that we’ll be chatting.

MR. RUSSERT: We’ll see you here.

MR. GINGRICH: Thank you.

MR. RUSSERT: Newt Gingrich, Chris Dodd, thanks very much.

SEN. DODD: Thank you very much, yeah.

MR. RUSSERT: Coming next, Ronald Reagan, one of only four presidents to keep a consistent diary while in the White House. What can we learn about his life and his legacy from his own words? Historian Douglas Brinkley and Reagan advisers Michael Deaver and Ed Meese are next only on MEET THE PRESS.

(Announcements)

MR. RUSSERT: The life and legacy of Ronald Reagan through this newly-released White House diaries, after this station break.

(Announcements)

MR. RUSSERT: And we are back with “The Reagan Diaries.”

Historian Doug Brinkley, you are the editor. What is the importance of “The Reagan Diaries”?

MR. DOUGLAS BRINKLEY: Well, it’s Ronald Reagan in real time. It’s—every day he was president, he would grab these maroon volumes, eight and a half by 11, and handwrite what he felt that day. He’d usually write them before he went to bed in the White House, occasionally bring them on Air Force One, Marine One. So we get to really see how Reagan really felt about people in his administration like Ed Meese and Mike Deaver, Al Haig, you know, George Shultz, on and on, but also, you know, the breakthrough diplomacy with Gorbachev, how he really dealt with Iran-Contra, on and on.

MR. RUSSERT: It is extraordinary how the president puts into paper and pen his innermost thoughts. The one thing that just leaps from the pages is his devotion, his even dependency on his wife Nancy. Here’s an entry from March 30^th, 1981. “I pray I” “never face a day when she isn’t there. Of all the ways God has blessed me giving her to me is the greatest and beyond anything I can ever hope to deserve.”

MR. BRINKLEY: Well, exactly. She’s throughout the diaries. There’re even funny examples when he has to spend the night alone without her. He goes to Canada early in his administration, and there’s—he can’t sleep in the same bed with Nancy, and he’s very disturbed by this. They’re in separate wings of a, of a building. And then at the end here, he has to spend his first day ever in his life at the ranch, right as his presidency was winding down, a day in Santa Barbara in the San—you know, the Reagan Ranch, without Nancy Reagan. So it was a true codependency, and a very special marriage, and it sparkles throughout the book.

MR. RUSSERT: Mike Deaver, how important—what kind of role did Nancy Reagan play in the Reagan presidency?

MR. MICHAEL DEAVER: Well, I, I don’t think there would’ve been a Ronald Reagan without Nancy. I don’t think he’d have been Governor Reagan, I don’t think he’d have been President Reagan without her. And that prayer of his at the end where he said “I hope I never have to spend a day without her,” well, his prayer was answered.

MR. RUSSERT: Ed Meese?

MR. ED MEESE: Absolutely. She did not get involved in the policy things in the White House, as some president’s wives had, but she was a good wife to him and somebody he could talk with about things. I’m sure he talked every night over what, with her, over what was going on. She also had, had a pretty good feel for people—who was serving him well, who wasn’t—and she communicated that with him. So I think she was an invaluable helpmate, really, to, to the president, who had the—tremendous pressures. And I think being with her relieved those pressures, the fact he could talk frankly with her and also the fact that she was standing by his side and with him. And that was a—it was really a balancing act, the fact that—she was a balancing feature, as far as he was concerned.

MR. RUSSERT: She wasn’t shy, and she always had his back.

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