Posted on 01/29/2016 5:27:41 PM PST by SamAdams76
Long before there was a Megyn Kelly, there was another presidential debate media scapegoat -- a New Hampshire newspaper editor by the name of Jon Breen.
Or, as then-candidate Ronald Reagan called him back in 1980, "Mr. Green."
That's always cracked me up -- Reagan, apoplectic with rage, yelling at this guy, in front of an audience of 2,400 screaming voters in a high school gym, and he can't even get Breen's name right. How's that for the ultimate insult? It's as if Donald Trump started calling his blonde Fox nemesis "Kelly Megyn."
Actually, Donald Trump should be so lucky as to get as much mileage out of Megyn Kelly as Reagan got out of Jon Breen. After losing the Iowa caucuses to George H.W. Bush, Reagan found himself trailing him in at least one N.H. poll by 21 points.
Following his confrontation with the editor, Reagan crushed Bush in the New Hampshire primary, 50-23, and was never seriously challenged for the nomination again.
What happened was, Reagan's campaign managers thought he had the GOP nomination wrapped up. As the front-runner, Reagan even skipped a pre-caucus debate in Iowa. Stop me if you've heard this one before.
Anyway, when the campaign shifted east, the Nashua Telegraph, of which Breen was executive editor, offered Bush and Reagan a one-on-one at Nashua High School on the Saturday night before the primary. But the paper couldn't pick up the tab unless it invited the other five GOP candidates.
Reagan, desperate, offered to pay the expenses. But realizing that this was the last big media event of the campaign, Reagan decided to invite the other five GOP candidates. He figured he needed to split up the anti-Reagan vote.
Bush said no, the debate in Nashua would have to go on as scheduled, one-on-one. Breen, a veteran N.H. Republican operative, agreed. According to Craig Shirley, who recounted the event in his book, "Reagan's Revolution," the debate was supposed to start at 7:30 p.m., but there was a standoff among the five candidates present. Finally, at 8:15, Breen and Bush sauntered out to the microphones.
Reagan was visibly angry. He strode out onto the stage, and motioned to the other candidates to join him.
"Can I address the audience?" he asked moderator Breen.
"No!" said Breen, whom Shirley describes as rude. The crowd started booing him. Breen then ordered the tech to turn off Reagan's mic, twice. But the tech was on Reagan's side. After the second order, Shirley wrote, Reagan "turned to Breen with blood in his eye and thundered, 'I am paying for this microphone, Mr. Green!'"
And that was basically it. No one remembers much else that happened that evening.
No networks were broadcasting the debate live, but in the subsequent hours leading up to the election, on TV the cut of an angry Reagan yelling at "Mr. Green" ran about a million times.
If Breen is still around, he'd be 75 or 76. I found one Breen in the 603 area code yesterday, and that guy's voicemail sounded like he was about the right age. Alas, he didn't return my call.
That being said... yeah Trump is a way leftie. At least, that's my opinion. Let me put it this way... Trump is WAY WAY left of me. He is to left for me to vote for him.
Not even close. Reagan did that once, and not because he got his feelings hurt because the moderator was mean to him...
They are not the whole ball of wax.
But as this moment as we slide towards another global war they rate as number one through four priorities if you want to survive this and retain any freedoms.
At the end of the day. Is Potentially now.
The Swiss economy has collapsed. Not just Spain, or Grease. Switzerland.
Do you not read? A stipend for every singe citizen to get by. Parse the implications of that.
Europe has run out of other people’s money. If global socialists are to maintain power they have to seize it by force now. They don’t fight well themselves (hedonist never do) so they are importing an army of Jihadis.
Neither you nor anyone else has a way to elevate any other issue to this level of importance at this moment. I can’t give you a classic military education now. Since you aren’t cognizant of where we are as a planet you will need someone more elegant that i to give you a crash course.
But you are not going to convince too many veterans who have spent much of their lives studying wars and how they came to be that immigration and the aliens from the Islamic world in our midst are some sort of side issue which we can work out later.
I’ve seen that tape many times, and it always looked as though Reagan said “Breen.” I was taking note because I had heard Reagan got the name wrong.
Wow. He did say “Green.” In fact, he said it several times.
I notice Kemp, Dole, Anderson, and Crane applauding Reagan, while George Bush is sitting.
That’s interesting. All I had to eat was cardboard and shoe leather. Dog poop and cat pee were considered unaffordable delicacies in my house.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.