What we are seeing here is the end of a presidential campaign. Gerald Ford, who had been appointed by Richard Nixon and went on the assume the presidency after Nixon's resignation, was facing huge obstacles in his 1976 bid for the office. His staff had calculated the fallout from his pardon of Nixon and felt that if he made no further mistakes, he could still win the election. However, in his final debate against Jimmy Carter in San Francisco, he was asked a question about Soviet dominance of Eastern bloc countries. He answered that he did not feel that these countries were under Soviet rule. You could hear a collective gasp from the audience in the theatre. Immediately, Ford's staff tried to get him to clarify his positon, but Henry Kissinger made a call to him that said he understood what Ford meant. It took another four days for Ford to set the record straight, and by that time it was too late. These photographs were made with the Canon f/5.6, 800mm lens from the top balcony of the theatre.