Most interesting primary campaign of my lifetime.”
Mine, too. First voted in 1958. This one just Trumps all of them put together. What a hoot!
Have you guys forgotten about 1964?
The political shadow of Richard Nixon. The murder of John Kennedy. The Civil Rights Act earthquake. The Cold War, specifically, the Berlin Wall, and Castro and the Missile Crisis and the Bay of Pigs. The beginning of the Vietnam War.
The main candidates: Goldwater versus Nelson Rockefeller. In other words, a Libertarian-Conservative against a Northeastern Liberal-GOP Elite.
Rockefeller's divorce, then his re-marriage, which broke up another family - an incredible scandal in that era.
In New Hampshire, the first primary, Henry Cabot Lodge, a write-in candidate, beat both Goldwater and Rockefeller!
The pivotal California primary that Goldwater won by a narrow margin.
The total chaos of the GOP Convention. Rockefeller denounced Conservatives in a prime time Convention speech. Goldwater's supporters booing and screaming and shaking their fists at Rockefeller.
As I recall, even William F. Buckley denounced Goldwater, but I can't recall why.
And: “Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice!”
THAT was the most exciting GOP primary in my lifetime.