![]() A surprised Bush threw a hissy fit, pouted in front of the audience and lost the debate.Ģ016 It’s Time to Declare War on Donald Trump In what Bush believed would be a one-on-one affair with Reagan, the Californian’s chief strategist, John Sears, surreptitiously invited the other Republican candidates. In the next key test-the New Hampshire primary, for which the transplanted New Englander claimed to have “the Big Mo” for momentum-Reagan pulled up his socks and out-maneuvered Bush at a contentious debate in Nashua. The Texan by way of Maine had upset Reagan in the kickoff Iowa precinct caucuses, when the Reagan camp took the state for granted and was out-organized by the Bush operation. He was well aware of another matter that would encourage Reagan to press the notion: his personal dislike of the other leading vice-presidential prospect, Bush. But when he broached the subject at a meeting in Palm Springs months before the convention, the former veep flatly said he wasn’t interested. Republican supporters circulated a petition favoring a Reagan-Ford ticket, and Reagan himself took to the idea. In the lead-up to the July convention-when Reagan was about to be acclaimed officially as the party’s nominee but with no VP yet-word got out that the former California governor was toying with taking former President Ford as his running mate on a “dream ticket.” Reagan’s pollster, Dick Wirthlin, surveyed leading party figures with eight possible choices, including Bush, Howard Baker, Donald Rumsfeld and Jack Kemp. Nelson Rockefeller.ĭuring the 1980 campaign, Bush had lost that nomination to Reagan and irritated him in the process. In 1974, when Vice President Gerald Ford became president in the wake of Richard Nixon’s resignation, Ford passed over Bush, regarded by many other party leaders as a quirky lightweight, as VP in favor of New York Gov. At the time, the senior Bush had a reputation in the GOP as a utility infielder only up to the subordinate jobs he held-Texas congressman and failed Senate candidate, United Nations ambassador, special representative to China, CIA director, Republican Party chairman. But heading into the convention in Detroit, it was not at all clear that Bush would be Reagan’s pick. The first Bush president, George Herbert Walker, never would have reached the Oval Office in 1989 had the 1980 presidential nominee, Ronald Reagan, not chosen him as his running mate. Amid all this talk, however, many seem to have forgotten that but for a weird set of circumstances at the Republican National Convention 35 years ago, the Bush presidential dynasty might never have gotten started at all. Jeb Bush’s chances at America’s first three-president dynasty-one that would eclipse that of John Adams and son John Quincy. Wednesday’s Republican presidential debate will be a big test of Florida Gov. Jules Witcover is a syndicated political columnist and author of books on American politics and history, including, most recently, The American Vice Presidency: From Irrelevance to Power.
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