Idea: Carter defeats Reagan in 1976

Exactly; Cheney wasn't running because he knew, as a career insider and dour bureaucrat, that he made a poor candidate. George H.W. Bush either didn't know or didn't care that he was a poor candidate. Which makes it difficult to know why anyone would see him "easily" winning the race against candidates who have him beat in conservative bona fides, campaigning ability, fundraising, electoral history...

A "poor" candidate against the opponents he was facing? He may not have been an All-Star in that area, but he wasn't the strictly bench material alternatives out there at the time. And with Iran (his diplomatic/CIA background) and the economy (oil businessman) he would have mopped the floor with the detail obsessed micro-manager Carter. Does anybody remember the humiliation he dealt to Geraldine Ferraro in the 1984 VP Debate?:mad:
 
I'm not saying it's him, but the competition was pretty bad. Baker has the charisma of a wet blanket (though I do like him). Kemp has little experience and would be running to be VP. Anderson is way too liberal for the time. Connally spent something 11 million to win one delegate, OTL. Bob Dole would be running for Senate re-election and really did like being a Senator so without OTL's actual VP campaigning he might not bother.

I think you're being too dismissive of Dole's sense of personal ambition. However, I never saw so qualified a candidate so hated by the media (at the time). They played up the "Dole Temper" angle every chance they got.:mad:

No I think there's an opening for some guy who stayed out of the race because of Reagan IOTL.

You sir deserve a cigar... Check the list of GOP governors (from EC healthy states) at the time.
 
If one gets butterflies from Reagan winning the nomination in '76 to effect the New York primaries then perhaps James L. Buckley wins another term, this time as the Republican Senator (either Moynihan stays out or Buckley beats Moynihan despite the odds). He could be a good conservative standard bearer.

54%-45% was the trumping Moynihan gave Buckley. As the Conservative Party Candidate in 1970, Buckley won due to a badly split Democratic Party, winning with only 38% of the vote. In 1976, as the Republican nominee, he saw Moynihan crushing Bella Abzug in the Democratic primary (Bella's nomination would have insured a Buckley landslide).

Getting to the Senate, and being a Senator, was Moynihan's life (4 full terms. Hillary got his seat).

I can testify from first hand experience from meeting the man while he was making a speech during his Connecticut Senate run in 1980 (my first ever vote:)) that he had all the excitability of Walter Mondale. Senator Chris Dodd's career began that day.:D

Having the last name of "Buckley" doesn't automatically qualify you as the Conservative standard bearer.
 
I can testify from first hand experience from meeting the man while he was making a speech during his Connecticut Senate run in 1980 (my first ever vote:)) that he had all the excitability of Walter Mondale. Senator Chris Dodd's career began that day.:D

Fair enough. I was just trying to find interesting candidates.

You sir deserve a cigar... Check the list of GOP governors (from EC healthy states) at the time.

Heh. There aren't many. New York, out. California, out. Jim Rhodes in Ohio is sixty and retired in 1983 OTL. Bill Clements in Texas just got elected. Lamar Alexander in Tennessee just got elected. William Milliken in Michigan is pretty moderate-to-liberal.

I've got John N. Dalton in Virginia but he only got elected in '78.

That's why I came up with an alternate California Republican Governor.
 
In 1992 Bush I was a mediocre campaigner. In 1980 he was winning multiple primaries going up against the premier Republican politician of the 20th century. When you last that long against the Gipper Himself,:rolleyes: you can't just discount that. And its not like Bush was a Progressive Republican (remember them?) either.

LOL.

Bush won 6 contests, out of 52, and none after May 6. He won DC and Puerto Rico, where Reagan did not bother to file. He garnered about 40% of Reagan's vote total. His median percentage in states he won was in the 30s, while Reagan regularly topped 50%, 60%, 70%. He didn't "last," he was simply the protest vote of the Rockefeller Republicans.

1980 was, for all intents and purposes, a total curbstomping of an awful campaigner.
 

Wolfpaw

Banned
IIRC, Nixon was grooming Connally for high office prior to Watergate.

Say Reagan gets the nod in '76 and then gets beaten by Carter. Ronnie's out for '80.

Connally, on the other hand, will be able to step into the limelight.

As to Connally's past as a Democrat...hell, all Southern politicians were. Nixon showed no problem swallowing the Dixiecrats as 100% GOP.
 
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LOL.

Bush won 6 contests, out of 52, and none after May 6. He won DC and Puerto Rico, where Reagan did not bother to file. He garnered about 40% of Reagan's vote total. His median percentage in states he won was in the 30s, while Reagan regularly topped 50%, 60%, 70%. He didn't "last," he was simply the protest vote of the Rockefeller Republicans.

1980 was, for all intents and purposes, a total curbstomping of an awful campaigner.
Wasn't Bush's victory in the Michigain primary after May 6?
 
Nixon's opinion shouldn't be the yardstick by which you gauge GOP support for Connally as he clearly had a man crush on him.
 
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