DBWI Ronald Reagan does not host the Tonight show

What would have happened if NBC had not hired Ronald Reagan to host "Tonight". Would the show have been as successful? Is there any truth to the story that Reagan was considering entering politics?
 
What would have happened if NBC had not hired Ronald Reagan to host "Tonight". Would the show have been as successful? Is there any truth to the story that Reagan was considering entering politics?
Yeah, that's true. Many people forget this, but he stumped for Goldwater in 1964, and some politicos had approached him with running for Governor of California as a Republican. Because of his work with the Tonight Show, he turned it down. And he also hosted several political talk shows on CNN after leaving in 1982.
 
NBC was lucky to get him in '65 when Carson jumped to CBS to host the "Johnny Carson Show". There was talk of him going into politics in '66, supposedly to run for Governor in California, but it's kind of hard to imagine such a genial guy making it in politics. Giving speeches for a candidate is one thing, actually running for office is quite another. In any event, I'm glad he went on TV instead of into politics. The mid-late 60s to the early 80s was a golden age of late night TV with Carson and Reagan going up against each other. The old reruns of Reagan on "Tonight" are still great to watch 40-50 years later.
 
I'm not too sure, but people believe that Reagan not only wanted to run for Governor, but for President too! What's next, Jerry Lewis as Vice President? Jack Benny as Secretary of Treasury? I can see an ex-general going into politics, but an actor?! That's a good one!
 
I read one ATL in which the oil crisis happens relatively late in '73. Instead of investing in a number of medium scale experiments in new energy, as well as cranking the economy in other ways such as reducing state and local restrictions on new businesses (and leveling with people that 80% of new businesses fail), seed money for new businesses, tacting away from Taft-Hartley and more toward Wagner Labor Act and thus opening the field for unions to directly work on job creation, all policies generally supported by a consensus of liberals and conservatives,

it's like the conservatives of this TL adopt talking points such as "excessive federal regulations" and so on and so forth, with the "conservatives" being more obstructionists than anything else. They even succeed in running skepticism toward global warming. And the detail I remember most is at the large quasi-monopoly (Wally World was it?), a person couldn't just buy the rubber or plastic insert for wideshield wipers, the blade itself. Oh no, you had to buy the whole contraption, but at a "discount" price!
 
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