Did you catch this? This time, not long ago, it was Adam Nagourney of the New York Times
who argued that, while traditionally Republican voters choose a GOP candidate and fall in love with him, this time they haven't: "Here's another way Republican voters tend to be different from Democratic voters: They like — no, love — their presidential candidates. Not always, of course. But from Ronald Reagan to George W. Bush to Dwight Eisenhower , Republicans voters have displayed a zeal for their candidates that Democrats could only envy."
But--not really. In 1960, many conservative Republicans only grudgingly accepted Richard Nixon as the party nominee; they really preferred Barry Goldwater. In 1968 Nixon had to fight hard for the nomination, turning back strong challenges from both Ronald Reagan and Nelson Rockefeller. People forget that Ronald Reagan only was able to finally capture the Republican nomination on his third try for it, in 1980. He lost the nomination, remember, to Gerald Ford in 1976. And even in 1980, late in the nomination battle, Reagan was crushed in the Michigan primary by George Bush. In 1988, Bush, the eventual nominee, still lost in the opening Iowa caucuses, and his campaign really didn't take off, including among Republicans, until after the Republican convention and his stirring acceptance address pledging "no new taxes." In 2000, George W. Bush was pounded by John McCain in the New Hampshire primary.
What Nagourney and other mainstream media types are missing is that, yes, they're right, Republicans have not in '08 QUICKLY and IMMEDIATELY fallen in love, and thus nor have they fallen in line, behind one Republican candidate. But history proves this shouldn't surprise us. Often, Republicans DON'T fall in love right away. They eventually fell for Reagan (for example). But not right away.
What they are good at, is uniting with passion behind the eventual Republican nominee. There's certainly still a good chance they'll do that this time.
