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Not Too Funny To Be President

Not Too Funny To Be President


April 6, 1976: The people of Wisconsin go to the voting booths statewide to vote on their party's nominee. The political watchmen waited in suspense after the vote count came in, for the situation in both parties was climactic.

In the Democratic primary, the state was supposed to be won by the dark horse liberal congressman from Arizona, Mo Udall, although an upset by obscure Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter was also a possibility that could have a potentially huge impact on the presidential race.

Even the Republican primary, in which the incumbent President stood, was a contest. President Gerald R. Ford, who had barely survived the past three years of presidency since he took office after the resignation of Richard M. Nixon, was fending off a challenge from a steward of conservatism: The charismatic former actor and Governor of California, Ronald Wilson Reagan.





The Reagan campaign had yet to win an actual "victory." A two-point loss in Iowa and a slim one-point loss in New Hampshire gave the Reagan campaign momentum, and it strengthened the conservative movement, yet Reagan had not yet proven to the Republican establishment and the Republican voters that he could win a contest or an election.

And the situation for Ronald Reagan worsened thereafter. President Ford won 61% of the vote in Massachusetts, followed by a landslide 84% in Vermont and then a six-point victory over Reagan in Florida, and then a 59% victory in Illinois, the childhood home state of Governor Reagan.

However, exactly two weeks before the Wisconsin primary, Reagan finally won his first victory in North Carolina, after winning a powerful endorsement from North Carolina's junior Senator and fellow conservative champion, Jesse Helms. Reagan won 52% of the vote to President Ford's 47%.

All eyes were on Wisconsin. If Ronald Reagan could win a second consecutive victory there, it might spell the end for President Ford. But if the President won yet another victory there, and especially if it were by a large margin, the end could be spelled for Reagan instead.

Meanwhile, in the Democratic primaries, another candidate was relying on Wisconsin to keep his campaign momentum alive: Arizona Congressman Mo Udall.





Udall, a liberal advocate in the House of Representatives since 1961, had yet to win a primary, despite his close second-place finish (23%) in New Hampshire in late February. Although an Udall victory seemed likely, his establishment was being undermined by the candidacy of a dark horse centrist from Georgia by the name of James Earl Carter, referred to even by himself as "Jimmy Carter."





As the reports came in on news channels such as ABC and CBS, it became increasingly obvious that whoever would win, would have won a nail biter. Governor Carter immediately did better than was expected, though he continually trailed Congressman Udall by no less than 500 votes at times, while President Ford and Governor Reagan continually swapped the lead.

At 9:15 P.M. on April 6, CBS News became the first channel to recognize that President Ford had decisively won the Republican Wisconsin primary. By the end of the next day, it was determined that Ford had won 56% of the vote to Reagan's 43% - a thirteen-point difference which could prove fatal to Ronald Reagan and the conservative campaign.

At 9:35, Governor Reagan spoke at a rally in Madison (where all the candidates, both Republican and Democratic, made their campaign victory or defeat appearances) in which he conceded Wisconsin. "But make no mistake," Governor Reagan exclaimed. "I am in for the victory, because I cannot stand by and watch as my own party nominates a President who has shown how unqualified he truly is. Gerald Ford may have won the battle, but he has not won the war!"

At 10:25, CBS projected that Mo Udall had won the Democratic primary. Although Governor Carter refused to concede until "an absolute result is declared," CBS confirmed the next day that Udall had indeed won the primary with 39% of the vote to Carter's second-place finish with 35%.

Immediately, the political watchdogs made it clear that Jimmy Carter was in deep trouble. Mo Udall had proven the liberal cause victorious in Wisconsin, and he was only the beginning. California Governor Jerry Brown had announced in March that, despite his inexperience, he would run for President in the later Democratic primaries in an effort to stop Jimmy Carter, and he was running on a platform that energized many young voters in the Democratic Party.





Wisconsin proved that neither the Democrats or the Republicans would have a nominee anytime soon, and it was certainly going to be an interesting battle.
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