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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
So there's hope for McClintock and California after all, huh?
This article mentions George Wallace. I am not sure he is given his due in history. Democrats whine about Nader giving Bush the 2000 election. But Wallace had a significant candidacy in 1968 which probably gave the election to Nixon and certainly gave him the road map for his southern strategy in 1972. Wallace was a populist and ahead of his time. He had great stump speeches. He talked about pointy head pseudo intellectuals and talked about the federal government by saying the states throw a tax dollar across the Potomac and the feds throw the states back a nickel. He was a real threat to the Democrat establishment and he had the most popular votes of any Dem presidential candidate when he was shot down on the campaign trail by Arthur Lee Bremer. Reagan would hit the sames themes as Wallace but without the racist baggage and with the class of a movie actor instead of a lifelong pol who lost his first campaign in a race for dogcatcher. Of course Reagan also was shot by the new and improved version of a crazed lone assassin in John Hinckley.
It's amazing to look back and watch Ford suck up to the Soviets. This is an American president? No wonder people like Reagan were so angry. Ford was the president of a defeated nation.
I was just a pup back in the late 70's, but I remember my dad used to take me along when we had to wait for an hour or more to get gas-- gas we could get only every other day. I remember my dad being pissed off about it a lot, but I couldn't understand why at the time.
Gas lines, hostages, Soviets in Afghanistan, double digit inflation, double digit unemployment, the sweater in the Oval Office-- damn, how did anyone in their right mind think that Carter could be re-elected?
How do the Democrats get away with pretending they don't remember ruining the country back then, too?
1976 was the campaign that got me interested in politics. While the author is right about Sears (who was fired after Reagan lost to George the Elder in Iowa, 1980), he is wrong in saying that the "Reagan Democrat" phenomenon was unrecognized. In 1976, Reagan was doing remarkably better in those states (e.g. Indiana) that had cross-over voting. Reagan Democrats were not going to bother with Jerry Brown, Jimmy Carter, Frank Church or Mo Udall. Moreover, many INDEPENDENTS flocked to these primaries because Regan represented them.
I also remember Reagan on either Merv Griffin or Phil Donahue, a couple of years later making it clear that he knew that 59% of the country had to be considered "conservative."
True, but he wasn't allowed on the floor. He had to wander the halls in embarrassment because we (the Texas Reaganites) would not allow Tower to be a delegate.
It was very immature of us but we were inexperienced, heady with our new power and had been treated like dogs by the Tower/Ford establishment. I will always regret my roll in hind site.
The GOP is one election away from big loses if the keep spending like drunken sailors.
Would anyone happen to have a link to the video of RR's 76 speech which he gave on the stage, impromptu, congratulating Ford?
I need this video.