WI: Reagan Wins in '76

Ford chooses to forgo the party nomination in 1976 and allows Ronald Reagan to be the nominee instead.

Who's Reagan's vice presidential running mate? By what margin does he win? How does he handle the economy? The Iran hostage crisis? Does he prevent the seemingly inevitable problems of the end of the seventies? Or does he only help the country years earlier? How's re-election look in 1980? Does he lead a more active post-presidency? Is his Alzheimer's diagnosed and/or treated earlier?
 
Whatever Democrat wins in 1980 will take credit for the recovery; unless the Democrat in question is so godawful boring that Reagan squeaks in a tight reelection.
 

DTanza

Banned
I doubt he'd win in '76, but assuming he does...

Whatever Democrat wins in 1980 will take credit for the recovery; unless the Democrat in question is so godawful boring that Reagan squeaks in a tight reelection.

This
 

d32123

Banned
I don't think Reagan would win in '76. You'd probably need a crappier Democratic nominee. Even if he does win, I'd expect him to be unable to win re-election considering the economic and international situation of the time (as others have expanded upon).
 

Japhy

Banned
I doubt Reagan would win in 1976 personally.

On the issue of his VP nominee, its worth noting that Dutch had a pretty hard time as it was IOTL challenging Ford and trying to keep his supporters in line. Reagan had tapped Richard Schweiker a well known Eastern Establishment / Moderate Liberal Republican. It would make sense to assume Reagan would do something similar if Ford isn't running.

The problem being that even at the convention with him fighting to take the nomination tooth and nail, the IOTL Schweiker pick caused a virtual revolt in his supporters whom tried to instead form a bloc to force Reagan to take another Hardliner, James Buckley as his VP. Considering the nature of the movement its not crazy to suggest that Reagan would be dragged by his supporters in 1976 via VP and Platform to a more rightist position.

And good luck to him if he tries that in 1976, he's most likely toast.
 
If Reagan won in 1976, he will immediately reduce the tax rates on corporations and the wealthy as a means of improving the weak economy. I can see when the Iranian Revolution breaks out I can see Reagan developing a military plan for rescue better than Operation Eagle Claw occurs and actually manages to rescue the American hostages and bring them back home safely. He will also send money and weapons to the Mujahadeen to fight the Soviets after they invade Afghanistan as Carter did. For all of this he will be hailed as a hero and in addition to the improving economy easily wins reelection in 1980. Until the end of his second term the nation's military deficits will continue to increase and allow time for some negotiations without the Soviet Union collapsing. Because Gorbachev is not premier until 1986, none of the major weapons deals like START take place right away. Reagan leaves office seemingly unable to prevent a major deal with the Soviet Union.

Bush is elected in 1984 and keeps most of the same policies intact and wins reelection in 1988 because he keeps the economy strong. In his second term, arms deals are made with the Soviet Union, the Berlin Wall comes down, and the USSR dissolves. Much of the credit still goes to the Reagan era military policies. Just like in the 1992 election of the OTL, the Democrats, namely Clinton takes the helm at the White House after the Cold War deficits cause a recession and there is a need to cut military spending after the end of the Cold War. Reagan is remembered as much as a hero as he is now. And Bush is remembered more fondly for the end of the Cold War. It might mean that come the 2000 election that W. Bush wins the election by a larger margin and the nonsense of that recount never takes place.
 
If Reagan won he would be regarded on the same level as Carter. The economy may have improved slightly over what we saw in the Carter Era, with low taxes, as well as the appointing of Volcker to the federal reserve, which I think Reagan would have done. However, it is highly likely that inflation would have persisted and rather than abort after Eagle Claw, he would have gone in, leading to a costly quagmire in Tehran. 1980 becomes a free for fall for the Democrats, but its likely Reagan loses, and the GOP becomes more moderate, meanwhile the Democrats could hold the White house until 1992 or 1996, as they would probably take credit for the fall of the USSR. Reagan has a few admirers but not the wide scale worship we see today.
 
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