Frank Lavin served under Presidents Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush in positions as varied as personnel, national security, international trade negotiations, Ambassador to Singapore, among others. In this conversation, we discuss his 8+ years in the Reagan White House from 1981-1989 - which is chronicled in his recent book Inside the Reagan White House. In the Reagan White House, he wore several different hats, was in hundreds of meetings with President Reagan, worked alongside some of the most influential administration officials - culminating in his stint as White House Political Director during the 1988 elections.
IN THIS EPISODE
Frank grows up in small-town Ohio in a tensely political time...
Frank talks the establishment vs. conservative sparring in the GOP of the 1970s...
Frank's early campaign activities in the late 70s and working for an IE backing Reagan as a college student in 1980...
An important political lesson Frank learned from James Baker in Baker's 1978 race for Texas Attorney General...
Memories of how Jim Baker ran the Reagan White House as Chief of Staff...
How Reagan borrowed from FDR to become a powerful political communicator...
How Reagan led the White House in meetings behind closer doors...
Frank's first White House job of letting unsuccessful job applicants down easy...
How the White House was a tug-of-war between "true believers" and "pragmatists"...
Memories of his time at the Office of Public Liasion and how the President would "freeze" the first 10 minutes of a meeting...
The 1984 Democratic challenger the White House was most worried about and how Reagan bounced back from a bad '82 midterm to win an '84 landslide...
The difference in "desk truth" and "street truth"...
How Reagan staffer Mike Deaver fundamentally changed the way a White House handles presidential travel...
Frank's time as a White House national security staffer negotiating with the Soviets and spending time with President Reagan and Margaret Thatcher at Camp David...
Frank demystifies his role as White House Political Director during the 1988 elections...
The origin of the famous Reagan "11th Commandment" maxim...
How Reagan initially won - and successfully held - the voters who came to be known as "Reagan Democrats"...
Frank's memories of being around President George H.W. Bush...
The low point of Frank's time in the Reagan White House...
Quick memories from Frank of prominent figures including Karl Rove, Colin Powell, Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger, Roger Stone, and Pat Buchanan...
AND Al Haig Disease, Lee Atwater, Jimmy Carter, George Christopher, Bill Clinton, creative tension, Peter DelGiorno, Terry Dolan, Tony Dolan, Frank Donatelli, Mike Dukakis, exotic tendencies, the FEC, fireside chats, forced marriages, force multipliers, Gerald Ford, John Glenn, Barry Goldwater, Mikhail Gorbachev, Bob Haldeman, Warren Harding, Kamala Harris, Gary Hart, hatchet men, horizontal management, LBJ, jelly beans, Dick Lyng, Paul Manafort, Eugene McCarthy, George McGovern, Ed Meese, Walter Mondale, Brian Mulroney, Daniel Murphy, Ed Muskie, NCPAC, neutral recapitulations, the New Left, non sequiturs, Oliver North, John Poindexter, the Reykjavik Summit, Stu Spencer, Robert Taft, Donald Trump, Bob Weed, George Wortley...& more!
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