Bush Whacking
1980 Republican Primary: South Carolina:
John Connally 55%
George Bush 44%
Howard Baker 1%
Bob Dole 0%
Phil Crane 0%
John Anderson 0%
After Baker and Crane withdrew from the campaign on March 9, 1980, it seemed the field would slowly turn into a two way race between Bush and Anderson. Then Connally won South Carolina. I thought about trying to swing it to Reagan but when he dropped out, I was left wondering who to support. Fortunately, Connally winning South Carolina was a fluke.
-Hard Knocks: My Life in Politics by Lee Atwater, Ballantine Books, New York, 1996.
1980 Republican Primary: Alabama:
George Bush 57%
John Anderson 39%
Bob Dole 4%
John Connally 0%
1980 Republican Primary: Florida:
George Bush 56%
John Anderson 39%
Undecided 5%
Bob Dole 0%
John Connally 0%
1980 Republican Primary: Georgia:
George Bush 63%
John Anderson 31%
Undecided 6%
Bob Dole 0%
John Connally 0%
The thing about Peter [Sellers] is that he was a fine performer if given the right script. It was in March 1980, after having another heart attack that he decided to slow down. Well, he didn't decide to slow down but his doctors and his son managed to convince Peter to slow down. It was then that Peter decided to back out of three films he had been asked to do to concentrate on Romance of the Pink Panther. Fortunately for those films, it was early enough that Peter leaving wasn't that big of a deal. It was then that Peter hit upon the idea of going back to television.
-Interview with Spike Milligan, BBC Radio 1, April 9th, 1998.
1980 Republican Primary: Illinois:
John Anderson 54%
George Bush 36%
Undecided 6%
Bob Dole 4%
John Connally 0%
With his campaign running out of money Dole bowed out with Connally, with Dole endorsing Bush while Connally endorsed Anderson. Dole went back to work in the senate and his own senatorial re-election campaign.
-One Soldier's Story by W. M. Romney, Harper/Collins, Boston, 2009.