Friday 10 January 2014

Bush '80



On February 7, 1980, publisher William Loeb editorialized: "Bush is obviously the candidate of David Rockefeller and the Trilateral Commission. If Bush, who is an oil man from Texas, is able to be nominated by the Republicans, then you see David Rockefeller and the Trilateral Commission will have it...As this newspaper has said before, what you are seeing in New Hampshire is an attempt by the entire Eastern Establishment, the Rockefellers and all the other power interests in the East, to snow New Hampshire voters under with so much propaganda that they will fall for this phony candidate called George Bush."

Bush's critics had charged that the Texan's candidacy was no more than his resume. The former director of the Central Intelligence Agency and chairman of the Republican National Committee was faulted for failing to define his stands forcefully and thoroughly enough.

Bush's contention in a Los Angeles Times interview on January 24, 1980, that in the event of a nuclear war you have a "survivability of industrial potential, protection of a percentage of your citizens," was attacked by editorial writers and in particular one primary opponent, liberal Republican John Anderson. At that time Anderson asked, "What madness is it that impels people to think a nuclear war is something that can be fought and is survivable?"

The influence of the Manchester paper in its home area was clear in this election. Reagan, who had carried the state's largest city by 2,172 votes against President Ford in 1976, this time won by 6,384 votes, capturing 74.8 percent to Bush's 9.4 percent. In Hillsborough County (which includes Manchester), Reagan's victory margin of 2,735 four years earlier rose to 14,628.

On election night, the Bush camp waited for the returns from the cities and major towns to offset the massive early lead Reagan had built in the Queen City and the smaller towns. Although President Ford had won nine of the 13 cities, Bush won just two, Lebanon and Portsmouth. Bush carried just two of the 15 largest towns — Hanover and Durham. The Texan failed to capture the state capital of Concord or the city of Keene, long citadels of moderate and liberal persuasion in the Grand Old Party.

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