White House Diaries

Friday, January 27, 1984

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Started the day with Repub. members of the House—breakfast in the East Room. Their Q’s. were mainly on Lebanon and a few on the deficit. I cant give a reading on whether they’ll stand with us on Lebanon. I’m sure some wont but I gave a little lecture on why we cant bug out. We’re trying to get the Israeli lobby which is very effective in the Cong. to go to work on how much Israel has to lose if Congress forces a withdrawal of our troops. Campaign time is coming closer even though I have not actually said the words to anyone (except Maureen & Nancy) that I’ll run. This morning took photos with Paul Laxalt, Ed Rollins & some of our staff for the R.N.C. Foreign Minister Abe of Japan stopped by—he’s been meeting with Geo. B. & our cabinet members. My job was to make it official that if they backed away from the agreements we came to in Tokyo on trade & defense we would not be able to restrain the Cong. from adopting protectionist measures. In the afternoon met with delegation of Repub. Mayors & elected Municipal Employees. They were most supportive but due to some fluke a female Mayor (Binghamton N.Y.) a Dem. was invited. I met her—she seemed very nice—I didn’t know at the time she was the interloper. She then ran for the press and did all she could to torpedo us. The rest of the afternoon was spent on 2 interviews, one with News Week— the other with Time. Both are for Monday so the Q’s. were all on the supposition that the night before (Sunday) I had announced my candidacy. I told them I understand the supposition & would answer accordingly but would not tell them what my decision was going to be.