>> Written in 1968 when Reagan was Governor of California.
>
> But here he's referring to him as "the candidate" which implies to me
> he's concentrating on him as the front-running candidate for the
> Republican nomination.
>
> People forget that Reagan's original plan, after the great reception
> of his speech in 1964, was to become California governor in 1966, and
> President in 1968 -- pretty much the same as the Obama trajectory.
> And according to the polls, he would have pulled it off had Nixon not
> snookered him with a classic and brilliant insider's working of a
> loophole in the nomination rules that nobody else caught onto until it
> was too late. Reagan didn't realize he wasn't the candidate until the
> voting started, and it was just as much a surprise to the public.
> Although back then, people were used to being surprised by the
> outcomes of conventions.
My understanding is that Reagan's 1968 "campaign" was mostly the work of some of overeager advisers. Reagan didn't actually do much campaigning. That's because he knew he had no chance of winning. Nobody thought Reagan could win a presidential election in 1968. (He probably couldn't have won in 1976 either.) If they had, it's much more likely he would have gotten the nomination. Strom Thurmond didn't agree to work the Southern delegates for Nixon because he found Nixon the most congenial candidate. Obviously he would have preferred Reagan. But again, Reagan couldn't win in 1968.
SA