Jon Ralston
speaker
269 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Jan 2026
last heard 19 Jan
Jon Ralston’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Jan 2026 with 1.
Appearances
But what Harry Reid's public presence belied was not only how steely, tough he was, but also how he had in private interactions, Rachel, if he was one-on-one with other senators, he knew how to connect with people.
And you wouldn't think that about Harry Reid, but he wrote, and I found this in his archive, the hundreds, maybe thousands of personal notes, which he copied and then would put in his handwritten notes to these senators talking about books, talking about current events, talking about their families.
He never forgot birthdays.
He never forgot birthdays.
the names of kids, and he knew what buttons to press.
And so he developed these relationships that would eventually pay off for him in legislation.
And when he made his gaffes, and some of them were really, really bad gaffes, and some of them, I think, were strategic gaffes in a way, in the sense that he was willing to say what his caucus believed, but no one in his caucus had the gumption to say, and they were silently cheering him on for saying,
What they wanted to say.
And so I think that there was a duality to the guy in so many different ways, Rachel, and that was one of them that you would, I mean, if you played tape of Harry Reid at a press conference or Harry Reid on TV, you would think, come on.
And by the way, Rachel, if I can just go to some history, which is now almost 40 years old, the first race I ever covered in Nevada was Harry Reid's Senate race, first Senate race against a guy that was recruited by Ronald Reagan and Paul Laxalt by the name of Jim Santini.
And I met Reid for the first time in August of 1986, and I could not – I was a cub reporter.
I didn't know a lot about politics, but I could not believe that this guy was a member of Congress.
I mean he was – and he was –
He was so milquetoast, he could barely put sentences together.
I'm exaggerating only to make the point that I met Santini, who was incredibly glib and a skilled legislator.
I said, this race isn't even going to be close.
And of course, Reid won that race and the rest is history.
But he always put great people around him.
He had great campaigns that would save him from being charismatically challenged.
and from his own gaps.
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