My favorite comment about Reagan's success was by Jules Witcover in his history of the Democratic Party called 'Party of the People.' I'm paraphrasing but he basically said this: "Democrats found out that what Reagan said and what Reagan did were often too different things but getting people to care was another matter altogether."
What I've learned about American politics from watching since Carter's time is this: doubt always favors the incumbent unless it is overcome and merely getting folks to despise the guy in office will not really help you all that much. I saw this with Reagan, Clinton, Bush, and now Obama (thus, the party doesn't matter).
Democrats really truly thought that the voting public would despise Reagan to the point they did, and this was absurd given that Reagan was an actor who knew how to play the "wrongly wounded pol." Not as much with Reagan as with Bush 43. They REALLY and TRULY thought they could get the country to hate Bush as badly as they did, they'd just carry over the nasty aftertaste of the 2000 Election and then win. It's a good thing for them Bush was dumb because think how badly things would have been if he'd been smart.
But the GOP was no better. Heck, I'll admit I thought Clinton was a goner in 1995 and so did nearly everyone else. But the American people as a whole were not as hung up on hating Clinton as Newt, Bob Barr, Tom DeLay, and the others (Richard Armey warned Newt that the GOP was going to get creamed in the shutdown fracas and he was right). Clinton was also the anti-Reagan.....Reagan ALWAYS got more votes on Election Day than he ever polled and Clinton always got less (remember when polls showed him beating Dole by 15 and he won by less than half?).
And then there's Obama, a guy who offered plenty of opportunity for a Republican to win - and yet once again, the American public does not hate Obama as badly as Mitch O'Connell does (name mis-spell intentional, Reagan did it in 1984 and said, "I must have been thinking of the Archbishop").
I was too young for Nixon but the same basic truth applies. Nixon was the most despised pol in America from everything I read and yet......he won twice, the second in a colossal rout, in part because the public didn't hate him as badly as the Democratic Party did. Well, not until the very end anyway.
I've long thought John Kerry's biggest mistake in 2004 was he never campaigned on TV for what he was FOR. He used meaningless slogans "I know a better way" and "I went to Vietnam" blah blah blah but in all seriousness I never saw him spell out one single specific on TV during the campaign (to be fair, I did read his book of proposals and he did make some although most of those were nested in meaningless jargon as well). He spent the entire campaign trying to convince us he was only for the war because Bush "lied" about it and wanted us to accept the idea Bush "made a mistake" but was unwilling to call his own vote one. Kerry never got that the people "out there" didn't despise Bush as much as his party did.
And I watch this over and over. The GOP better not think the public as a whole despising Hillary will be enough to keep her out of DC just as y'all better not be foolish enough to think that just because Rand Paul and Ted Cruz have said some stupid things it will automatically defeat them, either.
And for those thinking we should return to the golden age when people debated civilly I have three words for you: Hamilton and Burr.
What I've learned about American politics from watching since Carter's time is this: doubt always favors the incumbent unless it is overcome and merely getting folks to despise the guy in office will not really help you all that much. I saw this with Reagan, Clinton, Bush, and now Obama (thus, the party doesn't matter).
Democrats really truly thought that the voting public would despise Reagan to the point they did, and this was absurd given that Reagan was an actor who knew how to play the "wrongly wounded pol." Not as much with Reagan as with Bush 43. They REALLY and TRULY thought they could get the country to hate Bush as badly as they did, they'd just carry over the nasty aftertaste of the 2000 Election and then win. It's a good thing for them Bush was dumb because think how badly things would have been if he'd been smart.
But the GOP was no better. Heck, I'll admit I thought Clinton was a goner in 1995 and so did nearly everyone else. But the American people as a whole were not as hung up on hating Clinton as Newt, Bob Barr, Tom DeLay, and the others (Richard Armey warned Newt that the GOP was going to get creamed in the shutdown fracas and he was right). Clinton was also the anti-Reagan.....Reagan ALWAYS got more votes on Election Day than he ever polled and Clinton always got less (remember when polls showed him beating Dole by 15 and he won by less than half?).
And then there's Obama, a guy who offered plenty of opportunity for a Republican to win - and yet once again, the American public does not hate Obama as badly as Mitch O'Connell does (name mis-spell intentional, Reagan did it in 1984 and said, "I must have been thinking of the Archbishop").
I was too young for Nixon but the same basic truth applies. Nixon was the most despised pol in America from everything I read and yet......he won twice, the second in a colossal rout, in part because the public didn't hate him as badly as the Democratic Party did. Well, not until the very end anyway.
I've long thought John Kerry's biggest mistake in 2004 was he never campaigned on TV for what he was FOR. He used meaningless slogans "I know a better way" and "I went to Vietnam" blah blah blah but in all seriousness I never saw him spell out one single specific on TV during the campaign (to be fair, I did read his book of proposals and he did make some although most of those were nested in meaningless jargon as well). He spent the entire campaign trying to convince us he was only for the war because Bush "lied" about it and wanted us to accept the idea Bush "made a mistake" but was unwilling to call his own vote one. Kerry never got that the people "out there" didn't despise Bush as much as his party did.
And I watch this over and over. The GOP better not think the public as a whole despising Hillary will be enough to keep her out of DC just as y'all better not be foolish enough to think that just because Rand Paul and Ted Cruz have said some stupid things it will automatically defeat them, either.
And for those thinking we should return to the golden age when people debated civilly I have three words for you: Hamilton and Burr.
