William F Buckley really did know how to extract responses from his guests, no matter who was in the chair and no matter the politics. Can you imagine any interviewer asking the breadth and depth of these questions today, to any presidential candidate?
I wonder if either one running now would be able to answer these, certainly not as immediately directly as Ronald Reagan. We live in a time where everything is controlled by hovering advisors with pre-screened questions and answers only permitted for sound bites and campaign ads. We are the worse off for it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTyZAul60ok