41: Presidential Ambition and the 1980 Victory: From Farm Hand Friendship to the "There You Go Again" Knockout. Max Boot discusses Ronald Reagan running for president, first challenging incumbent Gerald Ford in the 1976 Republican primaries. Reagan narrowly l
Update: 2025-11-03
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Presidential Ambition and the 1980 Victory: From Farm Hand Friendship to the "There You Go Again" Knockout. Max Boot discusses Ronald Reagan running for president, first challenging incumbent Gerald Ford in the 1976 Republican primaries. Reagan narrowly lost the New Hampshire primary to Ford by about a thousand votes, but won the hearts of the convention with a graceful and moving speech delivered in defeat. After Ford lost to Jimmy Carter, Reagan spent the years between 1976 and 1980 returning to his "first love": radio. Despite his 1976 loss and his age (69), Reagan decided to run again in 1980, driven by personal ambition. Reagan loved going to his ranch outside Santa Barbara on weekends, where he enjoyed physical labor and preferred associating with ranch hands, former California state policemen Dennis LeBlanc and Barney Barnett, over the magnates with whom he was often photographed. The 1980 campaign was initially managed by John Sears, but Reagan fired him on the day of the New Hampshire primary, and Nancy brought in Bill Casey as campaign chairman. Casey was later implicated in the alleged "October surprise," and Boot found strong evidence this "probably happened," though the culpability rested with Casey, not Reagan. The campaign remained close through the summer, but the gap opened up weeks before Election Day primarily because of the late October debate, where Reagan delivered the famous rhetorical knockout blow, "There you go again," winning him the debate and the election.
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