For most of that campaign, many Republicans feared another Goldwater debacle with a Reagan nomination. Reagan was seen as too conservative, too divisive, too extreme, etc., much the same criticisms we are hearing concerning Sarah Palin.
During the summer of 1979 (before Reagan even announced his candidacy), we were already hearing about how unelectable Reagan was and that nominating him would be a disaster. It is for that reason that the establishment got behind George HW Bush early on and almost pulled it off as Bush beat Reagan in the Iowa caucus and looked strong going into New Hampshire.
Interesting to mention at this point how differently history would have played out had the establishment GOP not elevated Bush to be in position to be Reagan's running mate. Imagine if Reagan had been able to select a running mate more in line with his political philosophy. Current GOP should take this as a note of caution before trying to force a RINO like Mitt Romney on the 2012 nominee to "balance" the ticket. If a Tea Party conservative can win the nomination, we should insist upon a Tea Party conservative being made the running mate.
So basically what I'm saying here is that a lot of people in the Republican party feared that Reagan would be a disaster as nominee. Right through the summer of 1980, polls were showing Carter with a double-digit lead and a lot of Republicans were "going wobbly" to quote Margaret Thatcher. It wasn't until the final weeks of the campaign that Reagan's campaign really started catching fire as a lot of independent voters (and even Democrats) started warming to him.
This is an important point to consider. Many independents had a NEGATIVE opinion of Ronald Reagan throughout most of the election cycle. Don't forget that candidate John Anderson broke from the Republican Party that year to run an independent campaign as an alternative to Reagan. In the early summer, I believe he was polling 20-25% of the vote! He ultimately got around 6% percent of the vote as most of his supporters broke for Reagan in the final months of the campaign.
So my conclusion is that it is very premature to be writing off Sarah Palin right now due to her negative ratings. Remember that her negatives are being driven by the left-wing media who have a hate for her that can only be imagined. Should Palin get into the campaign (as I'm sure she will), those negatives will start to drop as people begin to see her for what she really is, as opposed to what the left-wing media would like us to think about her.
Think about this too. If Palin was really and truly un-electable and not a threat to Obama in 2012, then wouldn't the left-wing media want her to be the nominee? The fact is that the left-wing media is scared to death of Palin and what she is capable of should she secure the nomination and go head-to-head with Obama next fall. So they are engaged in an all-out effort to convince us that she has no business even getting into this race.
We cannot allow the left-wing media choose who our nominee is going to be. We saw where this got us last go around with John McCain. If you remember, the left-wing media were in love with John McCain right up to the time that he secured the nomination. Then the love affair came to an abrupt end and we all know how that story ended.
We should not make that mistake again. We may lose the general election with a Tea Party conservative but we will SURELY lose, and lose big, should we nominate another RINO that is palatable to liberals because in the end, the liberals are going to vote Democratic no matter what.
So let's make sure we nominate a candidate who is going to serve OUR interests. We should not care one bit about how the liberals feel about our nominee. In fact, the more they hate our nominee, the better chance we have to win.
Excellent analysis!