NEW YORK: This season’s presidential debates have reminded us all how important mock sessions are to helping the candidates prepare for battle. The key to those sessions are surrogates – usually members of the candidate’s own party, who play the role of the opponent in practice debate sparring.
Those surrogates rarely tell their own stories – which makes this first-hand account of this former Ivy League university president all the more intriguing. While still serving as head of the college, he was asked to play Ronald Reagan to help former Vice President Walter Mondale in the 1984 White House sweepstakes. He immediately accepted. Courtesy The New York Times.