A Most Consequential Campaign Speech

Reagan’s “A Time for Choosing” continues to reverberate 50 years later.

On October 27, 1964, 50 years ago Monday, a movie actor and television host delivered a 30-minute speech on primetime national television in support of the presidential candidacy of Barry Goldwater.

There were no visual diversions, and the production values by today’s standards were primitive. Few if any viewers realized it, but they were watching a future president of the United States.

But perhaps Ronald Reagan, the man on screen, had an inkling. Higher-ups in the Goldwater campaign didn’t want him on the air, for fear he would distract attention from the current candidate. But Reagan, using the negotiating skills he developed as president of the Screen Actors Guild, promised not to go on if Barry Goldwater called him and asked.

Reagan knew Goldwater and presumably figured that he would be reluctant to make the call. Goldwater didn’t, and he carried six states in the election the next week. In 1980 and 1984, 16 and 20 years later, Reagan carried 44 and 49.

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