I've been listening to John Dickerson's Whistlestop podcast. It's the best new thing. Each episode is 40 minutes, covering a moment in the history of Presidential politics. A convention, a campaign, a meltdown, a big win or loss. 

I was alive when many of these things happened but had no idea what was going on behind the scenes. Dickerson is a great story-teller, you can tell he loves this stuff, the stories are riveting. 

The last two episodes I listened to were about Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan at two RNCs, in 1980 and 1976 (the order I listened to them). 

I just watched a video of Reagan's closing 1976 convention speech. A lot has changed in 48 years. And he was a pretty fantastic speaker. And we know how things turned out, as he says in the speech that we will.