Before we get all lathered up about the potential differences between Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the new Democratic ticket for president, I want to share a fairly underreported story over the past four decades.

Former California Gov. Ronald Reagan had locked up the GOP primary process in 1980., He was looking for a VP nominee to run with him. He briefly considered asking former President Ford to join him; Ford said “no.”

Reagan looked around. Then he found an eminently qualified individual to run beside him. George H.W. Bush was a former CIA director, former UN ambassador, former special envoy to China, a former member of Congress from Houston.

It’s the last item that deserves focus. As a House member, Bush acquired a fascinating nickname among his colleagues. They called him “Rubbers.” Why? Because Rep. Bush was an ardent supporter of Planned Parenthood and endorsed the organization’s role in providing counseling for abortion services.

The “Rubbers” nickname, of course, was an homage of sorts to Planned Parenthood’s support of prophylactics.

But when Reagan tapped Bush to become his running mate in 1980, Bush immediately — and by that I mean instantaneously — became an ardent anti-abortion candidate for VPOTUS. His entire history of supporting abortion rights, birth control, and his embrace of an organization that counseled women on how to end pregnancies was swept up and tossed into the dust bin.

Reagan and his staff clearly obtained a pledge from Bush to march to their cadence.

And no one gave it a second thought. Reagan and Bush won election that year in a massive landslide.