Posted on 06/15/2011 7:35:03 AM PDT by no gnu taxes
I can't think of it. I mean McCain wasn't even the front runner last election for most of the race, and at this time in 2007, he was in serious trouble. But he was definitely the establishment guy and he ended up winning.
Is there any way we don't end up with a nominee Romney? I can only say that it's better than nominee McCain.
Conservatives heard his convention speech and saw an excruciating missed opportunity. Progressives saw a dodged bullet. They weren't thinking that Reagan would be their guy the next time around. They were thinking they'd buried him for good. They had fought the tooth and nail battle to which you refer and assumed that their victory was both decisive and final. On both sides of the great divide the thinking was that Reagan's time had passed.
You have forgotten that the early front-runner in 1980 wasn't Reagan but Gerald Ford, who was the Establishment's first choice. It only got to be Reagan's turn because Ford stepped aside. Even then Bob Dole had a good claim to be the next in line as Ford's running mate.
Reagan didn't have an Establishment wind at his back at any time in the 1980 election cycle. He wasn't quite the insurgent he was in 1976 because there was no incumbent GOP President in the race, but he was still running against those who traditionally control the party who have given us Hoover, Landon, Wilke, Dewey, Eisenhower, Nixon, Ford, Bush, Dole, Bush and McCain, progressives all.
There was nothing inevitable about Reagan. His presidency resulted from a series of improbable events that nobody anticipated as the 1980 cycle got underway (let alone in ‘76). For once the Establishment was frustrated and conservatives caught lightening in a bottle. It's rare, but it happened once and it can happen again.
Damn straight. Good post.
Before Reagan, there was Goldwater. The establishment candidate was Nelson Rockefeller.
You might recall that in national polls leading up to the Primaries, Reagan was vastly ahead of all other candidates.
And, vastly ahead isn't even close to a description of the reality of that campaign as shown in post #38. And the reason it was so close? ... IMHO, because the 'Establishment' didn't want Reagan.
There may have been someone, somewhere foolish enough to think Reagan was inevitable as 1979 became 1980. John Sears may have been overconfident. But Reagan always faced a hard uphill climb against a hostile Party apparatus and it was only by the grace of God that things turned out as they did.
I remember sitting with my Mom, watching TV on inauguration day with the split screen showing Reagan being sworn in while the Iranian hostages were being released, and thinking that I had to remember how that felt, being so overwhelmed with pride and happiness and not let myself forget.
BTW, where did the Reagan = Establishment folks go?
True that! I really admire(d) her in the day.
How is that pregnancy thing going?
“How is that pregnancy thing going?”
Grrrr....Her horomones are being...well, horomonal.
I missed another dust-up? Bloody work!!!
You’ll notice that of the two choices given the to the creep, he chose the latter.
“My guess is Ronald Reagan..”
We have a winner.
Gerald Ford barely beat Reagan in 1976. He was a Henry Kissinger Rino. “Leslie King” was so bad he named Nelson Rockefeller as veep and then Bob Dole. He was a pathetic member of the establishment. Not to mention he let Carter play "Dixie" in his southern radio ads and run as the conservative in the race.
Yes, I did!
Have to disagree with you there. I was working for an NPR affiliate station and throughout late 1979, they were running favorable stories about George Bush. The press nearly ran Reagan out of the race after his defeat in Iowa. Bush was the Rino favorite, with liberal John Anderson thrown in for good measure. Only after Reagan wiped Bush out in the southern and western primaries did the establishment make peace with him, and even then they tried to foist Gerald Ford on him as veep at the GOP convention.
The American electorate is the cause of the problem. And with the newer generations coming into power, the trend is not going our way. It's only getting worse. Socialism is now considered the best form of government by most of the drones living in the Urban sprawl.
America has lost it's moral direction and the compass is broken. It seems like it will have to completely fail first before it can be rebuilt.
But the question remains; Are these new generations who are rapidly taking charge, capable of knowing how to rebuild it into what it was originally meant to be according to the Constitution?
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