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.
My point. The alternatives only make his support that much more energetic.
I don't purport to know Reagan better than his son but I do know about the law of 'Lesser of two evils' - Something the Reps have been delivering up with annoying regularity with the exception of Reagan.
“What would RR do?”
He would look forward to the next election in which he would need moderate support to win the general election, and support the nominee in the losing effort this year. I’m not planning on running for anything. I have the luxury of standing on principle. I’m tired of the betrayals by the GOP leadership, including the compassionate conservative.
If you don’t want to be treated like a crazy uncle, don’t act like one.
“Here’s a scary thought, maybe McCain does win and without the help of conservatives. What to do then?”
Fight him on every liberal idea he goes across the aisle with.
What doomed Bob Dole was that the independents split primarily between Clinton and Perot. A conservative cannot win without attracting a lot independents. McCain has an appeal with the independents which can offset conservative defects to some degree. Dole didn't have that appeal.
I cannot believe that Michael Reagan doesn't know that McCain is far, far worse than the Obamabeast. /s Too many of us conservatives put party ahead of country. Congratulations.
And then you’d be “one more” of the wakky right fringe that would cut off his own nose to spite his face. To quote Dr Spock....”Illogical”..........
Ah, you are one of the people on this board who bash those not as conservative as you so please don’t claim the high ground. The fact is that if conservatives are going to kick the moderates to the curb then they will be nothing in the future. You want moderates to go for your type of candidate but revolt about the idea of voting one of their guys rather than habd the WH to the Dems. There is no 51% majority of conservatives and to think otherwise is delusional. We didn’t get Fred or Hunter. Romney was too unappealing so now we get McCain or a democrat....
I am sure Ronald Reagan would back McCain or any nominee over ANY Democrat.
I doubt he would have supported McCain during this primary at this time.
With Paul ruling out a 3rd party run, this is going to devastate the GOP because they can't blame Paul for their demise. I know that Paul wasn't popular here, and he was barely mentioned or written-off by the conservative blogs and pundits. But he's a huge elephant in the room here and he's the only candidate who has walked the walk and represents pure conservatism. I knew all of this is going to bite the establishment, they written off good conservatives such as Paul, Hunter, and Tancredo, desperately drafted Fred Thompson, and now they're stuck with the most liberal Republican to ever run for president as a Republican. It doesn't matter if conservatives "rally" around McCain at the last moment, what Michael Reagan and others fail to understand is that the GOP is completely SCREWED. They are outnumbered and out-fundraised by the Democrats. Time to make preparations for 2010 and 2012 and consider this election a wash, because either the Queen or Obama are going to be president.
I soncerely doubt this question will ever have to be answered.
Why would you consider my comment an insult? You said that Michael was entitled to his opinion, but you, on the other hand, had far too much respect for the President.
I thought your reply was good.
I doubt you'd post it otherwise.
I have no idea what Michael's intentions are. I spoke for myself, yet you found that remarkable.
He belongs to a church that hates white people.
There is no difference among him or the rats ...none.
Only eight more months till election day!
Make no mistake, I’m not happy about McCain - quite the contrary. But the people on this site have proven to be so far out of tune with the rest of the country, and so acerbic while being that way, that I can no longer rely on this site as a good indicator of what intelligent people think about things, like I used to. I’m going to suck it up and back McCain, because Obama is the devil. What are you going to do - cry in a corner?
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