Television is the future of the country. Increasingly, families all across the country have television sets in their homes. Reagan auditions and successfully becomes a host of a television show on CBS called General Electric Theater (O'Reilly 54). The money is enough to get Reagan out of his debts. The job is more than just hosting and acting though. With General Electric being a major corporation, Reagan is required to travel to the factory plants across the nation. These visits allow Reagan to learn about the economy and local governments, while speaking to workers and seeing assembly lines. He comes to a conclusion that less government involvement is the best path for America (O'Reilly 57). By the 1960 Presidential Election, Reagan has made a full turn to Republicanism. He is watching closely and listening carefully to the first-ever televised debate between Democratic candidate John F. Kennedy and Republican candidate Richard Nixon. Richard Nixon’s humble beginnings compared to JFK’s wealth, Nancy Reagan’s conservative views pushed on her husband and Reagan’s growing anti-communist and small-government views have led him to cast a vote for Vice-President Richard Nixon (O'Reilly 64).
Four years later, after Nixon’s failed run for the presidency, Reagan is prepared to watch a historic moment. Election day is just a few days away, and a speech that Reagan wrote in support of Republican candidate Barry Goldwater is about to be aired (O'Reilly 70). The same year, his career in Hollywood is over. He plays a villain in his final movie called The Killers, that was unsuccessful at the box office. But that does not matter. The speech begins, and a twenty-six minute soliloquy on America’s virtues follow (O'Reilly 71). The speech is a huge success and becomes famously known as “A Time for Choosing.” Before this, he was unsure of running for political office. Now, things are different. And so, in the 1966 Gubernatorial Election of California, he beats Democratic Governor Pat Brown in a landslide (O'Reilly 73). A year into his governorship, he is alongside Senator Robert Kennedy (brother to JFK), about to face off against him in a debate titled “The Image of America and the Youth of the World.” The panel consists of international college students about to ask tough questions on the War in Vietnam. The attacking questions that the students deliver allow for timid responses from Kennedy, but Reagan appears bold and confident (O'Reilly 78). As the debate comes to an end, he aims his words directly at a student from the Soviet Union. He says, “I believe the highest aspiration of man should be individual freedom and the development of the individual” (O'Reilly 80).
Nearing the end of his second term as governor, and having an unsuccessful run for the Republican nomination for president in 1968, Reagan is comforting President Richard Nixon over the phone. It is 1973, and the Watergate Scandal is leaving Nixon more and more depressed. Reagan tells him that he knows how difficult everything must be (O'Reilly 90). Nixon is drunk, and tries to change the subject. Reagan concludes saying that this hardship will pass. A year later, knowing if he does not that it could mean impeachment and imprisonment, Nixon resigns the office of the presidency. Reagan wonders if Nixon's successor, Gerald R. Ford, will ask him to be his vice president (O'Reilly 91). But Ford chooses Senator Robert Dole of Kansas instead. Reagan makes another attempt for the Republican nomination in 1976, but loses a very close race to Gerald Ford. At the Republican National convention, Reagan is asked to speak in hopes of bringing party unity. There is no script or notes for Reagan. He speaks of the communist threat, American values and God. It is not long before he sounded more like a preacher. The applause extends his three minutes of talking to an eight minute speech (O'Reilly 111).