Ronald Reagan: A Life From Beginning to End (Biographies of US Presidents Book 40) by Hourly History

Author:Hourly History [History, Hourly]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Hourly History
Published: 2017-10-03T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Five

Reagan’s Hat in the Ring

“Are you better off than you were four years ago?”

—Ronald Reagan

Leaving the governor’s office did not mean that Ronald Reagan intended to disappear from view. He began writing a political column that was published in 175 newspapers, where readers could follow his political thoughts, as well as giving speeches and radio commentaries. The 1976 election was guaranteed to be a raucous one; conservatives were still upset with President Gerald Ford, who had become president following the ignominious resignation of Richard Nixon after the Watergate scandal.

Ford had enraged much of the country when he pardoned Nixon. By naming Nelson Rockefeller as his vice president after he replaced Nixon, Ford disregarded the feelings of conservative Republicans who found no favor in the liberal New York former governor. Even when Ford dropped Rockefeller from the campaign ticket in 1976, the damage was done, and Ronald Reagan saw his chance to contest Ford for the Republican nomination.

However, Ford out-strategized Reagan in the New Hampshire primary and six subsequent primaries. But when Reagan countered by making Ford’s plan to return the Panama Canal to Panama a campaign issue and accusing Secretary of State Henry Kissinger of being easy on the Soviet Union, Reagan went on to win the North Carolina primary, keeping his campaign alive.

In the end, Ford was named the Republican candidate, albeit by a narrow margin which warned of trouble to follow in the election. By the time Ford lost to Georgian Jimmy Carter in the national election, the Republican Party knew that it had a new leader with the potential to restore it to power.

Reagan was ready for the 1980 election and declared himself a candidate in November 1979. He was not the only Republican who sought the nomination, and at first, it seemed as though the conservative, older Reagan was unlikely to win against prominent, experienced Republicans like Senators Howard Baker and Robert Dole, former CIA director George Herbert Walker Bush, former Texas governor John Connally, and Representatives John Anderson and Phillip Crane. The candidates were cutthroat in their zeal to win the nomination: Bush described Reagan’s promise to balance the federal budget, reduce taxes and increase military spending as voodoo economics, a stance also held by John Anderson, who said that the only way Reagan could accomplish these opposing goals was with mirrors.

The candidates had the resumes and the facts, but Reagan had personality. He campaigned for 21 days in a row for the New Hampshire primary, disproving any claims that his age was an impediment to his energy. His vigorous performance in the debates attracted the public’s interest, and he ended up winning 21 of the 33 primaries which saw him square off against Bush. When it was time for the convention, Reagan assuaged the fears of the moderate Republicans by naming George H. W. Bush as his vice president for the campaign.

The campaign was unruly. John Anderson had entered the race as a third-party candidate, and both Republican nominee Ronald Reagan and Democrat incumbent Jimmy Carter had reason to fear Anderson’s ability to take votes away from them.

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