Ah, the usual RINO spin. Before the election, it's "only RINOs can win!!!!! We have to nominate an ELECTABLE moderate or the GOP is dooooooooooooomed!!!" After the election, it's "Doesn't matter if a conservative won, any Republican could have won that race"
Example:
Illinois -- 1998:
March:
"Illinois is NOT a conservative state! A conservative WILL NEVER WIN! No Republican has even won a Senate seat here in THIRTY YEARS! The ONLY candidate who even has a CHANCE to beat Carol Moseley Braun is Loleta Dickerson (a.k.a. Carol Moseley's clone). You actually think someone who wants to CRIMINIZE abortion can win STATWIDE in Illinois?!?! Hahhahaha. Since when has that ever happened? It's IMPOSSIBLE. If you nominate this wackjob Fizgerald, you're just sealed Moseley-Braun's re-election!!
December:
"Okay, Fitzgerald won... so what? This is Carol Moseley Braun we're talking about. She was the least popular Democrat Senator in the country. ANY Republican could have beaten her. Fitzgerald is just a spoiled rich boy who bought the election. And Fitzgerald got those modern suburban voters, cuz, um, nobody knew he was against abortion and gays. Yeah. Besides, everyone knows Fitzgerald is not REALLY that right-wing. He just said he was to win the primary".
I agree saying anybody would have crushed Carter is dead wrong, but your example about Fitzgerald is a really horrible example. He barely beat a well known and obvious radical liberal, who barely won the seat in 1992, a great year for D's, and who was under corruption investigation. Frankly, people were dismayed when Fitz won by as small of a margin as he did. He was suppose to win by considerably more then he did.
This discussion is stupid. You can find 1000 examples of so-called 'true Conservatives' winning in difficult races, as well as 1000 examples of them losing. Same goes for so-called 'RINOs'. Anybody who actually thinks you can boil down any major political race to something that simple is stupid.
I had Conservative relatives, who lived in a very red state, with pockets of EXTREME blue bits. At the end of Carter's term, I was visiting them and overheard quite a number of Liberals viciously shredding Carter, saying that they would vote for ANY GOPer who ran against him, though they had NEVER voted for a single GOPer in all of their rather ancient lives.
Yes, both examples are anecdotal; however, they are also a microcosm of what 1980 America WAS really like!
Reagan said WHATEVER it took, to each and every audience, when campaigning. He told audiences mostly filled with Dems and Indies how much he LOVED and ADMIRED FDR! He told them how VERY proud he was to have not only been a member of a union, but the president of it. GOPers and Conservatives got a different speech.
During both of Reagan's presidential terms in office, the same sort of people here, who have trashed President Bush, were trashing President Reagan......WITH ALMOST THE SAME WORDS! He was a RINO, he wasn't Conservative enough, if at all, blah, blah, blaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.
Reagan was a GREAT president! It pains me to have to continually point out his flaws and missteps; however, due to the mythographers, who post to FR, making a demigod of him, I and a few others have to keep correcting all of the propaganda. Reagan is too good, to have to be lied about, in order to make him appear to be great. Reagan's appeal and legacy don't need embellishments; they stand on their own.
Carter was SO hated and reviled, that just about ANYONE would have beaten him, in 1980! That is the truth.