Contest of the Queens

It was a battle in red and aqua, a regal contest between the strikingly handsome, radiantly smiling wives of the presidential candidates at either end of convention hall. By engaging in light-hearted maneuver, Nancy Reagan, queen of the north galleries, and Betty Ford, queen of the south, relieved the tense arithmetic of the delegate fight. In this spirited display of elegance, it was impossible to declare a winner.

Nancy made the first move. On opening night she appeared, a stunning study in red, in the glass-enclosed VIP booth high above the floor on the north end. Cheering her as a surrogate for her absent husband, Reagan supporters broke into a foot-stamping ovation that lasted more than 15 minutes. During the tumult Betty arrived, in an aqua dress, and took her seat in the front row above the floor on the south end. But her arms-high greeting could not overwhelm the Reaganites' demonstration.

Betty prevailed on Tuesday, however, as the efficient Ford floor command passed the signal and delegates were ready with hundreds of Ford signs under their seats. Nancy arrived across the hall just before the 16c battle was joined. As she seemed to be gaining decibels in the audio clash, the band broke into TV Star Tony Orlando's hit song Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree. Betty turned to Orlando, who was visiting the Ford family's VIP gallery, and the two danced breezily in the aisle for a few moments. The crowd went wild. Nancy purportedly was spared the sight of her rival's triumph. "I'm nearsighted," she explained. "I couldn't see the other end of the hall."

During the primary campaign, the competition had not always been a matter of song and dance. In interviews with TIME Correspondent Bonnie Angelo just before the nomination, there was an edge to the comments of both women.

SEEKING UNITY

Betty Ford is perplexed that her husband was so hotly challenged for the nomination. "Personally, I think it should have been uncontested. Jerry has done such a good job in the last two years. To fight is very bad, very bad for the party; it has built up animosities. The Democrats somehow always are able to go away from a convention and make up, join forces. The Republican Party has a history of 'if my man doesn't get it, I'm just going home and sit on my hands.' We've got to have unity in the party. I don't know how it'sgoing to be done. I'm trying to think of ways it can be done."

She feels that Reagan got as far as he did largely because "he is a good speaker, he comes across well on TV --after all, that was his trade. Reagan is an attractive and appealing man--I like him. Jerry Ford is not fluff; he knows the real meat-and-potatoes part." Betty is critical of Nancy's opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment. "I just think that when Nancy met Ronnie, that was it as far as her own life was concerned. She just fell apart at the seams."

Betty is equally outspoken about the flaws in the Ford campaign. "I don't know who's to blame--maybe the President himself. But they were not organized early enough and were not good enough. In some states we had nothing at all. I would go into some states, like Utah and Arizona, and find zilch. Naturally I found myself very frustrated."

Being First Lady delights Betty Ford. "In personal terms, we are spending more time together than ever before. Even when he's traveling, we are together." Though she lost her bid for Anne Armstrong for Vice President, she plans to continue to lobby for the ratification of ERA, as well as some kind of Social Security program for the nation's housewives, "just as if they worked in an office." Only half in fun, she says, "After I'm no longer First Lady, I'm going to lobby for a salary for this job. It has long hours and a lot of responsibilities. But I would have it so that a First Lady can't collect unless she works."

LOST OPPORTUNITIES

"It was just Ron and a handful of staff against the tremendous power of the other side," said Nancy somewhat defensively. Though her smoothly modulated voice never wavered, her hurt came through. "I've never known the White House to be used by either party the way it was in this campaign. The White House stands for something. I don't think it should be concerned about uncommitted delegates."

Nancy spoke wistfully of lost opportunities. It still rankles that the President delayed so long in restoring the federal matching funds for the candidates last spring. "Ronnie joined the Democratic National Committee to push for reinstatement of the funds. Every candidate joined in--except Mr. Ford. There are lots of things that, looking back, we might have done differently. Maybe if we'd stayed an extra day in Florida or had money to go into Ohio, where Ronnie got 45% of the vote without campaigning. But we had no money. No money." She keeps thinking about those 1,500 Democrats who cast write-in ballots for her husband in the New Hampshire primary; their votes did not count. "If they'd only registered as Republicans."

She still winces at the political rough-and-tumble. "When I first went into politics, I was constantly getting my feelings hurt. I'm better than I used to be, but if somebody knows a way to make it feel less painful I wish they'd tell me." She is also upset by her image as a homebody who defers to her husband. She takes pride, she insists, in speaking out on the issues, especially foreign policy."I don't make speeches," she says. "Giving speeches is the way you get out of discussing issues. I answer questions wherever I go."

She has never grown accustomed to the lack of privacy. "I've always believed that when you are in public life, you are entitled to a private life. When somebody asks me a question that I feel is offbase, I just say that I don't want to answer. They don't mind. They accept it. I don't blame them for trying."

Nancy seems reconciled to defeat. "We go back to a marvelous life. We go back to Ronnie being completely independent, resuming his radio programs, his writing, continuing to talk about the things he feels are important. He feels very strongly about things, and now he will be independent again."

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