Voodoo (Economics) Won't Work Here

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Reagan: No John, I don't think that I am going to need your services anymore.

A Timeline, where timing is everything....

JOHN SEARS FIRED FROM REAGAN CAMPAIGN, WILLIAM CASEY SELECTED AS REPLACEMENT.
-New York Times, Wednesday, February 20th, 1980.

Voodoo (Economics) Won't Work Here.
 
All the effort that Reagan was putting into the campaign was all for nothing. After losing the Iowa caucuses, and boycotting the Puerto Rico primary to focus on New Hampshire, Reagan suddenly found himself 21 points behind Bush in New Hampshire ahead of the primary. Reagan finally put his foot down. He wanted to get into the fray. Bush offered him just that: A one-on-one debate three days before the New Hampshire Primary. Reagan accepted. In fact, on hearing that the Nashua Telegraph was going to sponsor it, Reagan offered to pay for it himself.

Reagan's campaign manager, John Sears, was against the idea and started to make plans to turn this to Reagan's advantage. Then, on February 19th, 1980, four days before the debate Sears was fired. No one really knows why, though there is some speculation that Reagan's wife Nancy had something to do with it. In the end though, Reagan lost the debate. Turns out, he just wasn't as strong a debater as he thought he was.
-Stopping the Revolution: The Rise and Fall of Ronald Reagan by Craig Shirley, Wilmington, Delaware: Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 2009.

We can call it now: Ronald Reagan has lost the New Hampshire Primary. In a statement, Governor Reagan has said that he will withdraw from the race. In that same statement he said that he would support whomever the eventual nominee will be. George Bush beat Governor Reagan 51%-20%.
-CBS Evening News, Walter Cronkite, February 26th, 1980.

We all went through an ordeal when Reagan withdrew. But it was all for the best really. After New Hampshire, I won Massachusetts. Still lost in Vermont and South Carolina though. As Barbara is fond of reminding me, everything worked in the end.
-Former President George Bush, 1998.

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Does it have to be Bush Snr. though? Anderson could be interesting as well.

He did damn well on a shoestring budget and his approach found some reproach due to him being quite open and different than the other guys. Big problem though; he mostly did so well due to the fact that both Reagan and Bush did not see him as much of a threat initially. He got walloped when they began taking him seriously and took advantage of their organization. A unified ticket under one guy would make that worse I'd say.

Still, he'd be an interesting spoiler effect, and I'd be curious to see if he could do better with just Bush Sr in the running as well as whatever else happens during 1980. He met the 15% requirement, so maybe he'd get it earlier and a better access to funds sooner, allowing him to slug it out with the big boys earlier and get his name out more. If he came in hot enough, he might even pull an upset.

EDIT: Especially should the religious right decide to just sit it out or field a ticket themselves because they don't have a horse they really care about running in the GOP like they did with Reagan.
 
I was attending Brown University at the time, studying history, and still trying to decide what I was going to do. I always wanted to act, though my mother was strongly against it. However, I felt just as strongly for it. It was my sister Caroline who finally convinced my mother to let me try it. It was only after I promised to graduate from Brown, my mother gave her blessing on the matter. And that was only begrudgingly.
-John F. Kennedy Jr., interview with Variety Magazine, May 12th, 2001 issue.

John Anderson, in spite of losing the recent Pennsylvania primary, says that he feels that he has enough support to continue on. Anderson, who has amassed wins in Vermont and Illinois has come in second to George Bush in the other primaries. With most of the other candidates having dropped out it looks like a two man race between George Bush and John Anderson.
-CBS Evening News, Walter Cronkite, April 24th, 1980.

April 25th, 1980.
Even though I had canceled the rescue attempt, things still went wrong. I have no doubt that the rescue would have succeeded had it not been for the various unforeseen circumstances. I will be blamed for this failure I know it.
-President Jimmy Carter's diary.
 
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Just out of curiosity: when a candidate drops out during the primary season and says that they support a particular candidate what happens to any states they may have won?
 
Just out of curiosity: when a candidate drops out during the primary season and says that they support a particular candidate what happens to any states they may have won?

I googled it and couldn't find anything. I'd guess they either:
1. Go to the person being backed
2. Go to the second place candidate
3. Hold the primary again
4. Become dead electoral votes

its probably 1 or 2
 
Just out of curiosity: when a candidate drops out during the primary season and says that they support a particular candidate what happens to any states they may have won?

Primaries are generally for determining delegates when the party eventually reaches the nomination. When you win a state, you receive those delegates. For an example of this you could use Tom Harkin. Harkin won the Iowa primary in 1992, then evidently endorsed Bill Clinton. So Iowa is recorded as a Harkin win, yet his delegates went to Bill Clinton when Harkin dropped out.
 
I had a really scathing attack on [NBC President Fred] Silverman on the May 10th broadcast. Somehow, Lorne [Michaels] got word of what I had planned that night and said that, thanks to a deal they had worked out on May 8th, I was possibly going to succeed Lorne should he (Lorne) leave the show, however temporarily. Well Silverman and I were never on the greatest of terms to begin with but I respected Lorne enough to not go through with the bit instead going on a, largely unscripted, rant on all the NBC executives at the time. While it didn't go over too well with Silverman, and it was a bit of a dud with the audience, I was able to just hang onto whatever chance I had of succeeding Lorne. Which I did.
-Al Franken, quoted in Live From New York: The Complete, Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live by James Miller and Tom Shales, Little Brown, New York, 2002.

I was only eight years old during that election but I had an interest in politics even then. My parents thought it odd, but they did not discourage me from it. I didn't think it would lead to here, but there you go.
-Senator Samantha Barnes (nee Smith), D-ME, Candidate for the Democratic Presidential Nomination, Interview on the campaign trail, October 13th, 2015.

Heading into the Republican National Convention in 1980, it looked like Anderson had a chance to be on the ticket under Bush. He had barely won a number of the primaries after Reagan dropped out. However, it was not enough to over come the Bush majority. Understandably, Anderson was not interested in standing with Bush. However, he was able to influence who would be on the ticket.
-The Election of 1980: Reports and Interpretations by Gerald M. Pomper ed., Chatham: Chatham House, 1981.

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Assuming Bush wins the nomination he would need a more conservative running mate to balance things out.

Howard Baker could work.
 
After my loss in the 1978 midterm elections, I moved on to business thinking that I was done with politics. So when dad got the nomination in 1980, I knew that I had to help him. So I joined his campaign. I was in the meeting where dad's running mate was decided. He had to be Conservative to balance out the ticket, from a northern state and, of course, be willing to lead at a moment's notice. The offer of vice president was offered to John Anderson, since he was dad's closest competition during the primaries. Anderson rejected the offer, but did say that he was willing to support fellow Illinois Congressman Phil Crane to the job. The decision was made.
-Up to Bat: Memories of a Life by Former Baseball Commissioner George W. Bush, Crown, Houston, 2014.

Phil Crane, who first came into congress by taking over former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's old seat in 1969, has been chosen to be the vice presidential candidate for the Republicans. Though some pundits had expected Senate Minority Leader Howard Baker of Tennessee to fill that slot, it has now been confirmed that Phil Crane will be the choice of the Republicans for vice president.
-ABC World News Tonight, Peter Jennings, July 17th, 1980.

I have never felt better.
-Peter Sellers, comment made after waking up from heart surgery, July 24th, 1980.
 
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