“Paul Laxalt. The Nevada version of Reagan, with both Gubernatorial and Senatorial experience. Reagan didn’t pick him because he thought having two westerners on the ticket wouldn’t work.”
good to know this...i wasn’t even born so i’m glad to grab these tidbits of info...i know reagan picked bush to try to merge the two wings of the party...but how do you pick a guy who calls your policies voodoo economics
Bad as the Bush VP choice was in 1980, Reagan’s first choice was worse. There were negotiations with former President Ford for him to be a sort of super Vice President, with major control over foreign policy and national security. This was going on during the national convention, scary days. Ford ended up wanting too much, so they turned to his man Bush, who had run second during the primaries.
I think another reason why Laxalt wasn’t chosen was because he was up for reelection in 1980, and the GOP was aggressively challenging as many Senate seats as possible to claim a majority they hadn’t won in 28 years. As it was, when Laxalt retired in ‘86 (far too early), that scumbag Harry Reid (whom Laxalt beat as long ago as 1974 when it was an open Dem seat, one of the few the GOP won) took his seat.
Reagan tried to unite the wings earlier. He picked PA liberal Republican Sen. Dick Schweiker as his running mate in ‘76, to the horror of Conservatives. Schweiker, however, actually moved rightward after his affiliation with Reagan. He retired in 1980 to get a Cabinet post, but was replaced by another infamous cretin... Arlen Specter (who beat the Conservative in the primary by a narrow plurality... and unfortunately, there was no runoff). And he almost lost the seat despite the Reagan landslide, barely beating the Dem, former Pittsburgh Mayor Peter Flaherty, 50-48%.