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.
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.
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