Posted on 01/18/2005 1:43:20 PM PST by RWR8189
I always thought it wasn't Ford who lost that election (and it certainly wasn't Carter who won it). It was NIXON who lost that election. Or, more specifically, Watergate.
Anyone the Dems happened to nominate was sure to win. Of that, Carter was proof positive.
the only campaign Reagan ever lost
Reagan made a try for the Presidential nomination in 1968 and lost. It wasn't a full-bore attempt like in '76, but it still counted.
Ronald Reagan was hardly known outside California in 1976.
As a politician, maybe. But being a former movie AND television star, I'm sure most folks outside CA had at least heard of or seen the man. Especially since the TV show he hosted, General Electric Theater regularly won its Sunday night time slot (until Gunsmoke started.)
Interesting. I actully think that the swing in the national mood started in 1968 when the leftist radicals got their foot in the door of the democrat party. Over a period of 25+ years, they have done alot to drive people away. There is not room in the democrat party if you do not follow leftist orthodoxy.
Reagan was a leader in the conservative movement in those days and very well known on a national level. That's why he almost beat Ford for the Republican nomination.
IMHO, Reagan (c)would have won in 1976. A key driving factor in the election was a candidate OUTSIDE the Washington power structure. Reagan fit the bill. Ford did not. However, as often is the case, the existing power structure fought tooth and nail to maintain the status quo.
As destiny would have it, Reagan triumphed -- and at the appointed time.
I don't like the way that they keep referring to Reagan as a B-movie actor. Reagan was a big wealthy movie star - he just wasn't the top 3 or 4 at any one time. A B Movie actor is like Long Duck Dong from Sixteen Candles who went on to be in a few more things, or James Gandolfini before he hit it big in the Sopranos.
Ford was a horrible campaigner and a moderate to boot. To this day he stresses that Roe v. Wade is the law of the land and conservatives need to realize it, not fight it.
Gerald Ford is a RINO if there ever was one, it serves him well getting beat by the lunatic peanut farmer and his snooty wife.
Sort of off the topic of the article, but I've always wondered (since I wasnt alive at the time): If JFK hadnt been assassinated, could Goldwater have beaten him?? What would have been different had this have happened??
Discuss.
Correct. The Republican Party at the time still had the Rockefeller Repubs in control. Reagan Republicans knew they would have to put the nose to the gindstone to get Reagan as head of the Party. Then there is always " a man for the times" argument. which I think GW is also.
"Anyone the Dems happened to nominate was sure to win. Of that, Carter was proof positive."
Unforutnately between 1976 and 1980, many bad things happened. Carter let the birth of Islamic terrorist movement begin in 1979 unheeded. He also managed to give away the Panama Canal.
Would certainly have been possible...after all, Nixon beat JFK.
And, if you remember, that was exactly how Jimmy Carter presented himself.
In fact, though, that year was the first time I noticed media bias. The campaign coverage by Time magazine couldn't have been clearer about which candidate the Establishment favored. On one page, you would see the Ford campaign news, featuring black-and-white photo cuts, and two pages over, massive Carter coverage in full color.
Reagan gave a voice to those "hard hat" voters who were sick of the radical's antics. And the Country Club Republican establishment had no more feel for middle class sensibilities than the pampered Red Diaper babies and elite Democrat establishment did. They both catered to their respective flanks and Reagan strolled in and took all the ground in the middle.
Thank God he did.
No.
Goldwater could not have beaten Kennedy. He would still have lost Northeast Republicans.
But this leaves aside a massive WHAT IF.
What if Carter hadn't been such an incompetent ?
As it happenned, he presided over the high water mark of Soviet military power and the high water mark of the cultural left (the whole cocaine, disco, meat rack bar, waterbed, "golden age of porn" era).
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