then he bowed his head and prayed.58 Reagan’s genuine warmth suffused that final night of the convention but its days had featured fiery speeches of bitter denunciation and cold calculation. Republican moderate and longtime supporter of equal rights George Romney was reduced to calling supporters of the ERA “moral perverts.” The party’s platform committee called for a constitutional ban on abortion. Reagan’s running mate, George H. W. Bush, in a dramatic turnabout, had changed his position about both ERA and abortion. When asked about his reversals, he waved the question aside: “I’m not going
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