Posted on 02/14/2008 2:14:33 PM PST by smoothsailing
Ronald Reagan Would Back McCain
By Michael Reagan
Thursday, February 14, 2008
In 1976 the Ford vs. Reagan campaign for the Republican presidential nomination got so heated it looked as if my father and Jerry Ford would never again talk to one another.
When it was over and Ford had won, what did Ronald Reagan do? He simply went all-out to help Ford win his re-election, as did I and as did my sister Maureen. My dad simply followed his rule of backing the Republican candidate no matter who he was.
Assuming that John McCain will be the Republican nominee, you can bet my father would be itching to get out on the campaign trail working to elect him even if he disagreed with him on a number of issues.
Unlike my father, a lot of conservatives stayed home in 1976, and we got four years of Jimmy Carter, whose main legacy was to drive the Shah of Iran from power and create the Islamic Republic of Iran with a bunch of wild-eyed mullahs running the show. He also gave us 20 percent inflation and long, long lines at the gas pumps. And don't forget 440 days of Americans held hostage by the mullahs.
By staying home those conservatives made possible the future election of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
We are still suffering from the legacy of James Earl Carter, thanks to the conservatives who refused to follow Ronald Reagan's example and instead sulked at home while the nation was being handed over to the worst president in American history.
We were still in the middle of the Cold War in those days, and by staying home conservatives risked losing that war by allowing an incompetent leader to become commander in chief.
Four years later Ronald Reagan took over, the hostages were immediately released, and he went on to win the Cold War. Now we have another world-wide war going on with a hidden enemy sworn to kill us all, and the policy of the Democrats running for the presidency is to throw up their hands and withdraw from the battlefield, leaving it to the enemy -- and our fate in the hands of Osama bin Laden.
Is that what the let's-stay-home-on-election-day conservatives want? Do they want the most liberal member of the U.S. Senate, Barack Obama, as their president? Do they want the pseudo-Marist Barack Obama -- who reportedly has a photo of the murderous Castroite thug Che Guevara hanging in his Houston, Texas campaign headquarters -- hanging that photo in the Oval Office?
Do they want Hillary Clinton, the duplicitous former first lady, back in the White House enjoying all those furnishings she and her husband tried to swipe from the mansion?
Do they want a Democrat spending even more money that the government doesn't have on scores of programs right out of Karl Marx's playbook?
That's exactly what they'll get if they sit out the election and stay home on Election Day. That's called biting off your nose to spite your face. Or even more to the point, political suicide.
Let me say this. There has been plenty of battling in the primaries, and I've been in the middle of the battle, but until now haven't committed myself to any candidate, waiting until we had a nominee.
That's over.
If John McCain is the nominee of the party, this Reagan will happily campaign with him. The alternative is unthinkable to anyone who loves this nation.
...................................................
Michael Reagan, the eldest son of Ronald Reagan, is heard daily by over 5 million listeners via his nationally syndicated talk radio program, “The Michael Reagan Show.”
Copyright © 2006 Salem Web Network. All Rights Reserved.
well that’s one conservative vote in his corner.
ROFLOL, just another vote insane or I’ll talk bad about your momma.
Well, I know me, and I’m no Ronald Reagan.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bceKsy4wXiM
Reagan Tribute
My tagline...
Come on folks, let’s rip the great Ronald Reagan’s son for being a RINO and a sell out. Rip his deceased father for backing Ford after he lost while you are at it.
You know you want to.....
Hunter? Gone
Fred? Gone
Romney? Gone
Hillary/Obama or McCain?
What would RR do?
LOL. The GOP establishment types are scared to death that rank and file conservatives won’t support McCain. Their fears are well-founded. I won’t be voting for McCain under any circumstance.
Have fun with Juan, Mike. Keep your back facing away from him at all times, though.
He was strong armed into bringing Bush on the ticket in ‘80, and tacidly supported him twice for POTUS. I think Reagan would give a Buchanan-style endorsement, but he wouldn’t sell his soul for the Benedict Arnold of the Reagan Revolution.
The HUGE, HUGE difference today versus 1976 is that Obama or the Evil Witch would do far more damage than Peanut Head did, AND, that there is no Ronald Reagan magicaly popping up in 2012. If he’s not here today, he won’t be there in 2012. Reagan spent 20+ years setting up for the 1980 election.
I agree with Michael. I am no fan of MaCain’s when it comes to alot of his policys, But I will be voting for him in November. He is better then Hillary or Obama when at least it comes to National Defense.
Funny thing is that the RINO backers didn’t seem to care when Michael Reagan called Duncan Hunter the best man for the job. In the end it doesn’t really matter because RR didn’t spend his political career insulting us. That left Reagan with one thing McCain will never have....a chance of winning.
This is an understandable position, and many conservatives have said vote for the GOP candidate, regardless - e.g., Reagan and, more recently, Fred Thompson.
The problem with this approach is that this loyalty is abused by triangulators like Karl Rove who force RINOs onto the party as “electiable” Republicans — lurching the entire party to the left.
While a reasonable path in Reagan’s day, I struggle with whether I will take that path any longer.
The worst president in American history is going to be elected in 2008.
Hopefully, it will not be a Republican. That would be a real difficult clean up for conservatives.
Keep carrying the conservative cudgel, Gov. Huckabee!
Is me or what but does what would President Reagan sound like South Park joke of what would Brian Botaneo would do you know the ice skater
Forget it - the Huck, Fred, and Hunter people on this site are so far around the bend that they can see the loonies on DU from the back. And it ain’t pretty.
Reagan was man enough to admit that he had lost and then worked to support his party while adding some conservative ideals to the platform.
Reagan would not allow a democrat in the mold of Hillary or Obama to take the WH.
Now we have another world-wide war going on with a hidden enemy sworn to kill us all, and the policy of the Democrats running for the presidency is to throw up their hands and withdraw from the battlefield, leaving it to the enemy -- and our fate in the hands of Osama bin Laden.That's right.
Michael Reagan-— quit calling my house and refusing to speak to me.
When McCain was a POW, he heard that Reagan vigorously supported the cause of the POW being held. He was deeply grateful for that support. McCain may have many faults, but I seriously doubt that he would betray RWR.
what kind of garbage is this?
Perahps it would be good for you to note that the party came together under Dole, and it didn't help him a damn bit with the base.
And Dole was a conservative rock star compared to McCain.
But at least Gerald Ford dropped Rockerfeller from the ticket and gave us Bob Dole. He also was polite enough to offer the spot to Reagan first. That made it a close election.
Why do I still get the idea than any McCain outreach to conservatives will be to slap them down?
Excellent point.
So you know Reagan better than his son? I grew up watching Reagan as governor of California, and he was the first presidential candidate I ever had the chance to vote for in 1980. As much as I dislike McCain, I have to agree that Reagan would vigorously support the eventual Republican nominee under any circumstances, especially when faced with the alternative of Obama or Hillary.
I doubt I will be able to force myself to give money or time to elect McCain unless he does a whole lot better job of reaching out to conservatives. But if he is the nominee, as seems a certainty, I will not speak against him, will at least support him verbally to the extent I can without compromising my principles, and will not stay home in November. I do remember the Carter years, and with the economy in its current state, electing Barak or Hillary could bring them back with a vengeance. It is not worth it. I will pray that McCain will be better than I expect, and support conservative candidates wherever I can.
Into what?
So how would RR have seen or heard McCain
s mavericking the President during wartime, for the last years?
He betrayed W.
One more graduate of the McQueeg school of winning friends and influencing though insults and intimidation.
Reagan loved this country. So, I believe that Reagan would have preferred having Ford elected in 1976, even if that meant that he would never be President.
They should just rename these articles, “Destroying Ronald Reagan for John McCain, Version 1, 2, 3... ...22,327.
I’m not voting for McCain. Tell me you’re going to dig Ronald Reagan up and re-bury him in Watts, and I’m still not voting for John McCain.
Republican Party, if you wanted my vote this year, there were two thing you could have done.
1. You could have told the guy in 1600 Pennsylvanie Boulvevard to rule from the right.
2. You could have set up the early primaries where conservatives weren’t subject to open voting, so that none of them could get elected.
Now, it is simply too late.
You’re going down in November. Get used to it.
Figure out what you’re going to do to get a conservative elected in 2012, because that’s what we’re working on, and it doesn’t involve you.
You’ve had your chance over the last twenty years and you’ve more or less taken a whiz on conservatives.
Surprise, surpise, what did you think that was going to gain you in the end?
Talk about a bunch of ignorant clowns...
It's his son's prerogative, but I have too much respect for the man.
Ronald Reagan was just a much, much better man than I.
I cannot support McCain because I don’t McCain gives a rat turd about the health of the GOP and especially about Reagan conservatism. I think McCain wants to remake the party in his image. And his image is anethema to me - www.reforminstitute.org.
Find a ‘position’ on that website that you can agree with as a conservative and then tell me what Reagan would have done.
I'll assume you lived through the late 70's. What makes you think things could get worse than that? It was spectacularly bad.
well that’s one conservative vote in his corner.
Gerry Ford was a pretty decent guy. Johm mcCain is not. There’s no comparison.
Probably the best person to make a judgment on that would be GWB.
Yeah, yeah, I’ll vote for him...and he’ll lose. That’s a certainty right now. Democrats are outvoting Republicans in primaries by almost 2:1.
I think we need to shift our focus to certain House and Senate races. We need to limit the new Dem President’s influence and get some good conservatives elected to Congress.
Ronald Reagan fought for decades to get us there, and he put his ideas into practice and proved they work. It's a different world than in 1972 or 1976, and to say that we have to accept the notion that conservatives go back to being the crazy uncles in the back of the room while the Bushes and Rockefellers make the real decisions is simply unacceptable.
The goal is to convince the American people that Conservatism is the way to go. If the GOP won't accept conservatism, then we need to take our 20 or 30 percent of the electorate, run conservative candidates, and work to get that number to 50 percent. After all, what is the point of winning elections if it is just to implement policies with which we disagree?
Okeedokee!
Why have a military on foreign soil if we have no borders at home? Why risk their lives for nothing?
That’s where Reagans followers may have done more for the country than Reagan’s personal decency would allow. We go forward by polarizing, not by bi-partanship. It would have been a huge tragedy, and perhaps a global disaster, had Reagan not taken the White House. In this election cycle, John McCAin is just the sort of fascist to preside over a vast abridgement of Constitutional rights. There may be a few nice, meek, falsely-decent Republican who go along with him, but real Americans have got to oppose this thug tooth and nail.
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