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What would Reagan say about the 2008 election ?

The Road to Serfdom revisitedBy McCaniac If you've never seen the cartoon version of "The Road to Serfdom", click here to read it. It's a classic from 1950 and well worth revisiting as we stand on the edge of economic catastrophe. The choice between reform and socialism has never been clearer, just as it was in 1952. A friend of mine today and I were talking about economists. I pointed her to this survey of economists compiled by Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert. You will note that the economists are 48% Democrats versus 17% Republicans. Not surprisingly, most economists...

In a prior post, I asked readers to guess the one Catholic ever named to a national Republican ticket. The answer was William Miller, running mate to the great Barry Goldwater in the 1964 race.   Here's another political trivia question with a religious link. Name the contender in this year's race who is technically excommunicated from the Catholic Church.ANSWER: According to the website of the Global Catholic Network the answer seems to be Palin. The site states that "once a person willingly repudiates Christ, embraces a heresy, knowing it to be contrary to divine and Catholic faith, or refuses submission...

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Republican Presidential Nomination 1964 Republican National Convention Cow Palace, San Francisco From this moment, united and determined, we will go forward together, dedicated to the ultimate and undeniable greatness of the whole man. Together we will win. I accept your nomination with a deep sense of humility. I accept, too, the responsibility that goes with it, and I seek your continued help and your continued guidance. My fellow Republicans, our cause is too great for any man to feel worthy of it. Our task would be too great for any man, did he not have with him the heart and...

Those who seek to live your lives for you, to take your liberty in return for relieving you of yours, those who elevate the state and downgrade the citizen, must see ultimately a world in which earthly power can be substituted for divine will. And this nation was founded upon the rejection of that notion and upon the acceptance of God as the author of freedom. Now, those who seek absolute power, even though they seek it to do what they regard as good, are simply demanding the right to enforce their own version of heaven on earth, and let...

Address on behalf of Senator Barry Goldwater Rendezvous with Destiny October 27, 1964 This speech is a verbatim transcript of "The Speech" given as a portion of a pre-recorded, nationwide televised program sponsored by Goldwater-Miller on behalf of Barry Goldwater, Republican candidate for the presidency whom Ronald Reagan actively supported. 4,626 words Thank you very much. Thank you and good evening. The sponsor has been identified, but unlike most television programs, the performer hasn't been provided with a script. As a matter of fact, I have been permitted to choose my own ideas regarding the choice that we face...

The near simultaneous publication of historian Sean Wilentz book “Age of Reagan” and the publication of activist / reporter Rick Pearlstein’s “Nixonland”, previously praised on these pages, has caused a dust-up over who most personified and ultimately transformed the modern conservative age which played out on the New Republic website. Although I am neither historian nor an unbiased reporter, I was a participant in the Nixon realignment which ultimately begat the Reagan revolution. ..... The change in Richard Nixon comes with Goldwater’s sweeping nomination and what Nixon then understands can be salvaged, even nurtured,in the ashes of Barry’s defeat. “You...

Many conservatives realistic enough to know there will never be "another Reagan" nevertheless wish at least for another Barry Goldwater. They don't realize that we already have one. His name is John McCain. {snip} AS WITH GOLDWATER, so with McCain. Irascible, iconoclastic, sometimes a bit profane, always his own man and nobody else's, McCain is a curmudgeon's curmudgeon -- but still with much to offer his country. We all know, of course, why so many of us are so often so angry with McCain -- his sometimes bizarre heresies from conservatism, his insulting language and hair-trigger temper toward conservatives who...

The Married Man Cometh: The Doctrine of American Exceptionalism By Michael Donnella This week, I experienced the second best moment in my life, after the first birth of my son. On Friday May 23, the lovely Caitlin Whitehead became the even lovelier Caitlin Donnella, and two souls became one. We have become so much closer in this first week of marriage, and the feeling of love and beauty is irreplaceable. I enjoy my youthful idealism right now more than anything in my life. My wife gives me the extra strength that I already have to continue to push and to...

Orange Countification: Part 1 Excerpt from One Night, Two Teams: Alabama vs. USC and the Game That Changed a NationBy Steven Travers Bill, I've just handed the South to the Republicans for fifty years. – President Lyndon Johnson talking with aide Bill Moyers right after the Voting Rights Act In 1964, the Democratic Party dominated U.S. politics. Lyndon Johnson defeated Barry Goldwater with 64 percent of the vote. He had enormous filibuster-proof majorities in the House and Senate. The imprimatur of John Kennedy’s legacy hung solidly on LBJ. A majority of America’s governors and state legislatures were Democrat. The Civil...

My grandfather was a college football star who even played for the NFL champs back in 1928, so I was looking forward to seeing George Clooney’s new 1920s football movie, Leatherheads, this weekend. That’s before I found out how Clooney, like many lefties in Hollywood and the news media, had treated the late Charlton Heston. Clooney’s offense took place a few years back. According to Life Site News, “For his conservative stands, however, Heston was attacked and reviled by his Hollywood colleagues. In 2003 actor and leftist political activist George Clooney joked about Heston’s illness [Alzheimer’s disease], and, after Heston...

In what may well be one of the last published articles he wrote, William F. Buckley Jr. recalls the problems that arose when the John Birchers got too close to Barry Goldwater’s Presidential Campaign: The society had been founded in 1958 by an earnest and capable entrepreneur named Robert Welch, a candy man, who brought together little clusters of American conservatives, most of them businessmen. He demanded two undistracted days in exchange for his willingness to give his seminar on the Communist menace to the United States, which he believed was more thoroughgoing and far-reaching than anyone else in America...

RICHARDSON, Texas (AP) — Republican presidential hopeful John McCain said Thursday the question of whether he can run for president, despite being born in the Panama Canal Zone, was put to rest 44 years ago in Barry Goldwater's run for the White House.McCain added that he doesn't know why his campaign sought legal analysis of whether his birth outside the continental United States might disqualify him from the presidency.The Constitution says only a "natural-born citizen" may serve as president.McCain's campaign asked former Solicitor General Ted Olson for a legal interpretation of the issue.McCain himself insists the issue was put to...

In the early months of l962, there was restiveness in certain political quarters of the Right. The concern was primarily the growing strength of the Soviet Union, and the reiteration by its leaders of their designs on the free world. Some of the actors keenly concerned felt that Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona was a natural leader in the days ahead. But it seemed inconceivable that an anti-establishment gadfly like Goldwater could be nominated as the spokesman-head of a political party. And it was embarrassing that the only political organization in town that dared suggest this radical proposal—the GOP’s nominating...

Am I the only who has been screaming “What the hell is wrong with people… John McCain????  Seriously John McCain??? No, I know I’m not!  So then I think and ask myself over and over, until my head hurts, “what would make people vote for someone like John McCain, Hillary Clinton, or Barrack Obama?”. The answer…  People have no ideology, nor do they care to beleive in anything other than themselves.  People think everything is owed to them.  People do not care about what a person will do once in office, they're acting like this election is American Idol,...

I am working on a book for publication next year (in April 2008, if all goes well) about the late Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona, who served for thirty years in the United States Senate and was the 1964 Republican Party presidential nominee. His son Barry Goldwater Jr., who is my longtime friend, and I discovered a lot of unpublished first-person material in the Senator's papers at the Arizona Historical Foundation as the archivists were completing the processing of his collection. Because we found this material remarkably revealing about the man and his thinking, we hope others might find it...

The son of the legendary Conservative Republican presidential candidate and Arizona senator, Barry Goldwater, produced a YouTube video endorsement of Ron Paul. Ron Paul responded “I am honored to have the endorsement of my friend, Barry Goldwater, Jr.,” said Dr. Paul. “Barry and his family have been giants in the fight to protect American values, and his support means the world to me.” In the video Barry Goldwater Jr. who served 6 terms in Congress with Ron Paul in highlights Paul’s honesty and integrity. Goldwater also said, “Ron Paul believes in a strong national defense but not being the policeman...

Barry M. Goldwater, Jr. endorsed Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul for president. “America is at a crossroads,” said Mr. Goldwater. “We have begun to stray from our traditions and must get back to what has made us the greatest nation on earth or we will lose much of the freedom we hold dear. Ron Paul stands above all of the other candidates in his commitment to liberty and to America.” “Leading America is difficult, and I know Ron Paul is the man for the job,” he added.

In September, I posted another vanity (linked below) in which I observed that the historical trends in this election favored Fred Thompson. Since then, his RCP average has dropped from about 22% to 16-17%. In the more volatile Rasmussen daily tracking poll, he has also dropped to 16%, about a 10 point drop from his post announcement high. In light of the above poll numbers, is it time for me to issue a mea culpa? No. This is not at all inconsistent with the hypothesis of my previous post. Neither of the successful insurgent candidates in modern times, Reagan or...

An analysis of every Republican Presidential Primary in the last 50 years shows that on only 3 occasions was there no incumbent President or Vice President, former President or Vice President, former nominee for President or Vice President, or son of a former President running for President. In 1960 (Nixon), 1968(Nixon), 1972(Nixon), 1976(Ford),1984 (Reagan), 1988(Bush 41), 1992(Bush 41), 1996 (Dole), 2000 & 2004(Bush 43), there was a clear "ex officio" establishment candidate who had either: a) been President; b) been Vice President; c) been the nominee earlier for President or Vice President; or d) was the son of a former...

Before reading A Glorious Disaster my knowledge of the 1964 presidential election was shallow. I knew Lyndon Johnson defeated Goldwater in a landslide, but I never really knew anything about the nuts and bolts of the campaign. The 1964 election is an odd one. Johnson had just become president after the Kennedy assassination (killed by a Marxist, go figure). As senator Johnson served as a conservative southern Democrat. He voted against every Civil Rights bill while he was in Congress. Johnson only shifted his opinion later because of the popularity of the measure. Johnson's ambitions were much stronger than any...

Is 2008 The New 1964? [John Derbyshire] There's a Pro-Ron-Paul meme going around, to the effect that 2008 is the new 1964; i.e. that on the premise—debatable in itself, of course—that the GOP has no chance of winning the presidency next year, conservatives should run a Goldwater-style insurgency to remind the party we're here & set up some influence for 2012. Bruce Bartlett floated the meme here. I got a thought-provoking e-mail along similar lines (one of dozens like it I've had on that Paul column) from Ben Novak, who lists himself as "founder of the Americans in Europe for...

At the 1960 Republican National Convention in Chicago, Barry Goldwater famously told conservatives to "grow up." It's time we hear that message again. As in 1960, the conservative movement seems grumbling, disaffected, even downright angry -- and, most importantly, it sometimes seems more interested in complaining and moaning than in uniting, constructively, to achieve political success. What's worse is that we seem to be fighting among ourselves. Every chance we get, we take shots at other conservatives. Nobody, it seems, is good enough. We moan that nobody is another Reagan. Nobody is another Churchill. Nobody is another Washington.

Mr. Conservative: Goldwater on Goldwater [DVD] Zeitgeist Video // Unrated // $29.99 // July 31, 2007 (excerpts) Zeitgeist Films has released Mr. Conservative: Goldwater on Goldwater, a documentary on the legendary Republican Senator from Arizona. Co-produced by Barry Goldwater's granddaughter, CC Goldwater, Mr. Conservative: Goldwater on Goldwater attempts the rather ridiculous transformation of the unsuccessful 1964 presidential candidate and author of The Conscience of a Conservative into a rebellious liberal, while hinting that his personal life may have been troubled. Perhaps significantly, no screenwriting credit is given, but one must assume that despite the film's listing of Julie Anderson as...

Barry Goldwater's 1964 Acceptance Speech Republican Presidential Nomination, 1964 Republican National Convention, Cow Palace, Daly City, Calif., July 16, 1964 From this moment, united and determined, we will go forward together, dedicated to the ultimate and undeniable greatness of the whole man. Together we will win. I accept your nomination with a deep sense of humility. I accept, too, the responsibility that goes with it, and I seek your continued help and your continued guidance. My fellow Republicans, our cause is too great for any man to feel worthy of it. Our task would be too great for any...

Been There Done That by: Mary Kapp, July 09, 2007 Young conservatives watching the poll ratings of the only president they have ever voted for implode got some words of comfort, sort of, from a veteran conservative journalist last month at the Heritage Foundation. After conservative Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater’s landslide defeat in 1964, the movement that nominated him was “apparently dead,” M. Stanton Evans remembers. “We didn’t even have grief counselors at that time,” Evans wryly recounts. “The malls weren’t covered.” “It could rain.” Back then, Evans was the editorial page editor of The Indianapolis News. “There were...

On July 8, in the year of our Lord 2006, I will celebrate my 39th birthday – for the 41st time. I wrote about this last year when I turned 79, and earlier, when I reached 78, and what I recounted then is still relevant and worth updating. I don't expect my birthday to evoke widespread national interest since most people have a lot more important things on their minds than my advancement into my 81st year. (Yeah, that's right – I'll be 80 years old, having completed that many years in this vale of tears, but from 7-8-06 onward...

The following speech was given by President Reagan when he nominated Barry Goldwater at the 1964 Republican Convention in Cow Palace. "I am going to talk of controversial things. I make no apology for this. It's time we asked ourselves if we still know the freedoms intended for us by the Founding Fathers. James Madison said, "We base all our experiments on the capacity of mankind for self government." This idea that government was beholden to the people, that it had no other source of power is still the newest, most unique idea in all the long history of man's...

From this moment, united and determined, we will go forward together, dedicated to the ultimate and undeniable greatness of the whole man. Together we will win. I accept your nomination with a deep sense of humility. I accept, too, the responsibility that goes with it, and I seek your continued help and your continued guidance. My fellow Republicans, our cause is too great for any man to feel worthy of it. Our task would be too great for any man, did he not have with him the heart and the hands of this great Republican party. And I promise you...

4/20/2007 - GILA BEND, Ariz. (AFNEWS) -- Missouri fighter wing goes to wild, wild west From the ground, the Barry M. Goldwater Range looks like the set of a 1960's Clint Eastwood spaghetti western. The air is dry enough to taste, and the ground sprouts an occasional cactus. The mind can only envision what creepy kinds of scorpions scurry along these barren sands near Gila Bend Air Force Auxiliary Field. This is home for rattlesnakes, Gila monsters, road runners and endangered antelope. Earlier this year, it was a target for many of the 442nd Fighter Wing's bombs in an operation...

Could someone please tell me what a “Goldwater-Conservative” is? I’ve seen several posts since Fred Thompson’s appearance on FNS comparing the two. I’m 48 years old and was six years old in 1964 when Goldwater lost to LBJ so my memory of and my political interest at that time are/were very limited. However, all I’ve read about Mr. Goldwater indicates that he was a Libertarian and fiscal-conservative at best and a VERY social liberal at worst, at least in his later years. Perhaps, all of the references to Goldwater point to his early, 1964 circa times. But later, in the...

The following is from an email from Gabrielle Goldwater: Home   I   Donate to ACT   I   Subscribe to ACT   I  Join ACT Today   I   Petitions   I   Contact Congress Visa Waiver Program Action Alert, ACT today A message from Michael Cutler, member of ACT Board of Advisors. Please read this important article and the action alert that follows. We need your help.     I was interviewed a couple of days ago by a reporter from the Saint Petersburg Times about the Visa Waiver Program.  I have attached a copy of the article below.    As you might expect, I remain absolutely opposed to this program that in my...

Gabrielle Goldwater's open letter to Prime Minister Olmert ........................... To Prime Minister Ehud Olmert eolmert@moital.gov.ilGeneva Switzerland August 14th 2006 Dear Mr. Olmert; It is with the utmost sadness as a Jew and Holocaust Survivor, that today I have to see that You surrendered our Jewish Homeland Security to an organization which in her deepest core, is anti-Semitic, and the most helpful tool serving Islamo Fascism - I talk about the UN and it's leader Sec. Gen. Kofi Annan. Looking back in history my father would turn in his grave knowing that Jews have NOT stood tall - but caved in...

The Democrat Party died yesterday in Hartford, Connecticut. Present when this venerable institution breathed its last were a minority of the Democrats in the Nutmeg State. The Party was the child of the Republican-Democrat Party, and the Anti-Federalist Party. It leaves no known descendants. However, political parties sometimes spawn children many years after their deaths. Is that verdict too harsh? The leaders of the Democrat Party in Washington, New York, and elsewhere, are not admitting even to a serious illness. It’s difficult to conduct a proper Irish wake when on-lookers insist on prodding the deceased to sing and dance. These...

Variety reviewer Robert Koehler (formerly of the L.A. Times) recently reviewed a new documentary titled "Mr. Conservative: Goldwater on Goldwater." The main driver behind the project is his granddaughter, C.C. Goldwater, and it's scheduled to air on HBO on September 18. The list of interviewees underlines it's not a big right-wing project: it includes Walter Cronkite, Ted Kennedy, Al Franken, Helen Thomas, James Carville, Bob Schieffer, Andy Rooney, Julian Bond, Ben Bradlee and Sally Quinn, John Dean, and erstwhile Goldwater Girl Hillary Rodham Clinton. A few righties appear (Richard Viguerie, George Will) and some more centrist GOP types do, too...

En route to getting shellacked by historic proportions in the 1964 presidential race, the Republican challenger, Senator Barry Goldwater, suffered through a smear job every bit as oversize and ugly as Lyndon B. Johnson’s gallbladder scar. Not the infamous “daisy ad” circulated by the Johnson campaign, in which a young girl innocently pulled the petals from a flower until a mushroom cloud filled the frame. While setting a new standard for negative campaigning, that TV commercial was at least rooted in Goldwater’s loose talk about using “low yield” atomic bombs in the escalating Vietnam War. The truly low blow came...

SIERRA VISTA — Republican gubernatorial challenger Don Goldwater made a stump run through Cochise County this weekend to expound on his border platform. Goldwater, who is from Phoenix, was quick to say he’s the only candidate who favors building a wall on the border to prevent illegal immigration. On Friday night at the Outback Steakhouse in Sierra Vista, he had dinner with friends and talked with the Herald/Review. Goldwater said the source of our dysfunctional Southwest border is a “supply and demand issue.” While the Arizona National Guard is deployed to the local international border, Goldwater said they are serving...

PHOENIX A Spanish news agency apologized for a report that described a Republican gubernatorial candidate's proposed work program for illegal immigrants as "concentration camps." The story last week caused an international stir when EFE, a national news agency of Spain, quoted candidate Don Goldwater as saying he wanted to hold undocumented immigrants in camps to use them "as labor in the construction of a wall and to clean the areas of the Arizona desert that they're polluting." EFE Executive Vice President Emillio Sanchez said a freelance writer for the news agency inaccurately described Goldwater's plan. "Upon further reflection, our investigation...

A Spanish news agency apologized for a report that described a Republican gubernatorial candidate's proposed work program for illegal immigrants as "concentration camps." The story last week caused an international stir when EFE, a national news agency of Spain, quoted candidate Don Goldwater as saying he wanted to hold undocumented immigrants in camps to use them "as labor in the construction of a wall and to clean the areas of the Arizona desert that they're polluting."

Washington D.C. ­– Conservative U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) issued the following statement regarding the suggestion of Don Goldwater, candidate for Arizona governor, to incarcerate illegal immigrants in forced labor camps: "I strongly denounce Don Goldwater’s deeply offensive suggestion that illegal immigrants should be incarcerated in concentration camps along the border, and pressed into forced labor. That Mr. Goldwater is either unaware of or indifferent to the loaded symbolism, injustice and un-Americanism of his “plan” to address the many serious issues caused by illegal immigration reveals his flaws as a candidate, and a stunning lack of respect for the basic...

WASHINGTON Jun 23, 2006 (AP)— A Republican gubernatorial candidate's call for creation of a forced labor camp for illegal immigrants drew rebukes Friday from two GOP lawmakers, who labeled it a low point in the immigration debate. Don Goldwater, nephew of the late Sen. Barry Goldwater, caused an international stir this week when EFE, a Mexican news service, quoted him as saying he wanted to hold undocumented immigrants in camps to use them "as labor in the construction of a wall and to clean the areas of the Arizona desert that they're polluting." The article described Goldwater's plan as a...

A new poll shows Don Goldwater leading the list of Republican candidates for governor by a substantial margin, including conservative rival Len Munsil. Goldwater is the nephew of the late Barry Goldwater, a longtime U.S. Senator from Arizona and the 1964 Republican candidate for president. A poll of likely GOP voters by SurveyUSA shows Goldwater with 39 percent. That is well ahead of other gubernatorial candidates. Conservative advocate Len Munsil, viewed as a front-runner by many party leaders and business lobbyists, received just 10 percent. Scottsdale businessman Mike Harris received 9 percent and former Santa Cruz County attorney and state...

<p>John McCain, you treasonous bastard, I challenge you or any of your traitorous cohorts to find even one thread, one post, one paragraph, one sentence or even one lousy word posted to this web site that is not fully protected by the First Amendment!</p>

Members of Congress retire all the time, but some retirements are leading indicators of the direction of our politics. Rep. Sherwood Boehlert's announcement last week to call it quits matters, and in a depressing way. The affable 69-year-old New York Republican is one of the last of a breed: a liberal Republican, though he calls himself a "moderate" and has the record to prove it. Boehlert's departure does not leave the House bereft of liberal Republicans -- Rep. Jim Leach of Iowa is more liberal than Boehlert. But Leach, alas, is an outlier. The spotted owl is in good shape...

McCain Holds the Cards Paul Weyrich Saturday, Feb. 25, 2006 It is always difficult to handicap the next presidential election before the midterm elections. So I will not go through the litany of the half-dozen Democrats, including Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, who may contest for the nomination. The views range from "Hillary has got it in the bag" to "Hillary won't run." Democratic Party sentiment is said to range from "ready for another Clinton Era" to "fear of another Clinton Era"; from "the Party wants a familiar face" (Hillary) to "the Party seeks a totally new face" (former Governor Mark...

A choice, not an echo By Colin McNickle TRIBUNE-REVIEW Sunday, January 22, 2006 John Shadegg has written his Republican Party leadership obituary. At least in this Republican Party. The Arizona congressman, a dark-horse candidate to become House majority leader, has invoked the "G"-word in a GOP that, for the most part, treats the principles of Barry Goldwater like a teenage girl treats a fresh pimple on prom night. That would be with disdain and derision. What a shame. Not for Rep. Shadegg, mind you; but for real Republicans, true conservatives and a badly wanting country.

"During the campaign of 1964, [he] was our incorruptible standard-bearer," recalled William F. Buckley Jr. in his 1998 obituary of Barry Goldwater, the career senator from Arizona, 34 years after the watershed. Goldwater, of course, was defeated resoundingly on Election Day, winning only six states. "It was the judgment of the establishment that Goldwater's critique of American liberalism had been given its final exposure on the national political scene," Buckley continued. "But then of course 16 years later the world was made to stand on its head when Ronald Reagan was swept into office on a platform indistinguishable from what...

Barry Goldwater: The Most Consequential Loser Lee Edwards, Ph.D. Distinguished Fellow in Conservative Thought The Heritage Foundation Barry Goldwater was the most consequential loser in modern presidential politics. His conservative candidacy forty-one years ago has had a more enduring impact on our politics and our nation than the losing candidates usually mentioned in the history and political science texts--Theodore Roosevelt in 1912, Al Smith in 1928, George Wallace in 1968, George McGovern in 1972, and Ross Perot in 1988. This judgment might be challenged by some, given that Goldwater received less than 39 percent of the popular vote and carried...

Gold prices rose Monday, hitting fresh 24-year highs as investor interest in the yellow metal booms. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, spot gold was up $7.70 at $527 an ounce in morning trading. In European trading, spot gold rose as high as $541.30 an ounce. Spot gold is trading at levels not seen since 1981. Traders said the contract is testing resistance at $541.80 and $543.20, and that resistance would likely be a short-term top followed by a dip to $523.10 and $531.00. Long-term charts say that if the contract breaks through $543.20, however, it would be going for...