From Oct. 28, 1980, in Cleveland, Ohio, here is part 1 of the Carter-Reagan Presidential Debate, as taped from CBS. Amazing how things have changed…and yet stayed the same…in almost 30 years!!!
Soviet Union
MR. KALB: Mr. Mondale, you have described the Soviet leaders as, and I’m quoting, “. . . cynical, ruthless, and dangerous,” suggesting an almost total lack of trust in them. In that case, what makes you think that the annual summit meetings with them that you have proposed will result in agreements that would satisfy the interests of this country?
MR. MONDALE: Because the only type of agreements to reach with the Soviet Union are the types that are specifically defined, so we know exactly what they must do; subject to full verification, which means we know every day whether they’re living up to it; and followups, wherever we find suggestions that they’re violating it; and the strongest possible terms.
I have no illusions about the Soviet Union leadership or the nature of that state. They are a tough and a ruthless adversary, and we must be prepared to meet that challenge, and I would. Where I part with the President is that despite all of those differences we must, as past Presidents before this one have done, meet on the common ground of survival. And that’s where the President has opposed practically every arms control agreement, by every President, of both political parties, since the bomb went off. And he now completes this term with no progress toward arms control at all, but with a very dangerous arms race underway instead. There are now over 2,000 more warheads pointed at us today than there were when he was sworn in, and that does not strengthen us.
We must be very, very realistic in the nature of that leadership, but we must grind away and talk to find ways of reducing these differences, particularly where arms races are concerned and other dangerous exercises of Soviet power.
There will be no unilateral disarmament under my administration. I will keep this nation strong. I understand exactly what the Soviets are up to, but that, too, is a part of national strength. To do that, a President must know what is essential to command and to leadership and to strength.
And that’s where the President’s failure to master, in my opinion, the essential elements of arms control has cost us dearly. He’s 3 years into this administration. He said he just discovered that most Soviet missiles are on land, and that’s why his proposal didn’t work.
I invite the American people tomorrow — because I will issue the statement quoting President Reagan — he said exactly what I said he said. He said that these missiles were less dangerous than ballistic missiles because you could fire them, and you could recall them if you decided there’d been a miscalculation.
MR. NEWMAN: I’m sorry, sir — —
MR. MONDALE: A President must know those things.
It has been 150 years since the beginning of the Civil War that started in April of 1861 at Ft Sumter.
Ron Orsini, owner of a North Little Rock heating and air-conditioning business, had been dead for three years when Arkansas Business launched in 1984. But it wasn’t until 2002 that his widow, Mary “Lee” Orsini, confessed to his murder, just a couple of weeks before she died in prison of a heart attack.
Lee Orsini’s conviction for Ron’s murder had been overturned, but she was serving life without parole for hiring two blundering hit men to commit the infinitely more sensational murder of Alice McArthur of Little Rock, wife of her defense attorney, Bill McArthur.
There are still a lot of people who suspect McArthur was involved in his wife’s murder in July 1982, but a grand jury refused to indict him. After all, no evidence beyond the word of a murderess ever connected him to a crime that created a media circus the likes of which Arkansas has not seen since.
The Daily Hatch 