Читать книгу The Choice: Ronald Reagan Versus Barack Obama and the Campaign of 2012 - Matthew Ph.D Lysiak - Страница 9

Reagan stared in disbelief at the message he had just typed on his iPad. It was July 22, 2011, and he was sitting alone in his Des Moines hotel room with a finger suspended in the air, hovering over the update button. It had been over a year since Reagan had started seriously considering another Presidential run. Through all the months of uncertainty and angst, he had slept soundly. But now he found himself wide awake, with a pounding heart, consumed by the two words on the screen: “I’M RUNNING.”

He took a deep breath and tapped his finger down, updating his Facebook status for more than 300,000 supporters. There was no turning back—for the third time in his life, Ronald Reagan had become a candidate for President of the United States.

In the months preceding this moment, there had been a frantic rush of town hall meetings, roadside dinners, and VFWs as Reagan toured the country, warning people about the dangers of the liberal healthcare overhaul while promoting his own plan, Free Market Healthcare Solutions. His scathing stump speech was an enormous success and one audience member’s taped account went viral on YouTube. In his speech, Reagan called for the repeal of ObamaCare (the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act) and warned that its individual mandate provisions and high costs amounted to backdoor socialism:

“One of the traditional methods of imposing statism or socialism on a people has been by way of medicine. It’s very easy to disguise a medical program as a humanitarian project. Most people are a little reluctant to oppose anything that suggests medical care for people who can’t afford it.

“Now, the American people, if you put it to them about socialized medicine and gave them a chance to choose, would unhesitatingly vote against it. We had an example of this in poll after poll.

“It was proposed that we have a compulsory health insurance program for all people in the United States and of course the American people unhesitatingly rejected it.

“So, with the American people on record not wanting socialized medicine, President Obama and the Democrats rammed through the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

“This bill mandated that all people be brought into a program of compulsory health insurance. Now, by supporting this bill, President Obama was subscribing to a foot-in-the-door philosophy, because he said if we can break through and get our foot in the door then we can expand our program after that.

“The socialists themselves say now that once the Affordable Care Act is passed we will be provided with a mechanism for socialized medicine capable of indefinite expansion in every direction until it includes the entire population.

“Well, we can’t say we haven’t been warned.

“It is provided as a national emergency that millions of Americans are left without care. Advocates of this bill challenge us on an emotional basis. They say, ‘What would you do, throw these people out to die with no medical attention?’ That’s ridiculous and it’s something of course that no one has advocated.

“Now what reason could these other people have for backing a bill which says we insist on compulsory health insurance for citizens regardless of whether they are worth millions of dollars, whether they have an income, or whether they have savings? I think we can be excused for believing that this was simply an excuse to bring about what they wanted the entire time—socialized medicine.”

Reagan’s speaking tour did more than galvanize Tea Party members’ support of his platform. The brazen attack on Obama managed to keep the public conversation focused on healthcare reform, an issue Reagan’s chief rival, Mitt Romney, had been desperately trying to avoid since he had previously faced off with McCain and Reagan in the 2008 campaign. While still governor of Massachusetts, Romney had pushed hard and succeeded in universalizing healthcare for his state. This time around, greater scrutiny was cast on Romney’s former plan, as newly obtained White House records illustrated how senior Obama administration officials had in turn used Romney’s plan as a model for ObamaCare.

Meanwhile, all references to a “permanent liberal realignment”—a term that had garnered much popularity only months before—had vanished from the media’s lexicon. With Reagan’s help, in 2010 the GOP gained its biggest midterm election seat swap since 1938 and, despite remaining the minority party, made solid gains in the Senate. Republicans hopeful of retaking the White House pointed to the convergence of voting in Congressional and Presidential elections during the last three cycles as a reason for hope in 2012, while Washington Examiner columnist Michael Barone wrote, “Obviously, this is not good news for Barack Obama, since the popular vote for the House in 2010 was 52 to 45% Republican. Translate those numbers into electoral votes and you have something like a 331 to 207 Republican victory.”

Over the next year, Reagan had stayed on the campaign trail, pounding on the way President Obama was handling the economy. Furious Americans were ready for Reagan’s message as the unemployment rate hovered above 9% and a gallon of gas cost over $4. Making matters worse, that August, Standard and Poor gave America its first ever downgrade in its credit rating: from AAA to AA+. There was a deep sense of anxiety about the future. Many people, including those of foreign nations, had lost faith in America.

But not Ronald Reagan. On November 13, 2011, Reagan officially kicked off his candidacy at the Liberty State Park in New Jersey. That same day, bookmakers at Intrade had listed Mitt Romney as the odds-on favorite to win the GOP nomination, with odds at 2-1. Ronald Reagan was a heavy underdog at 10-1, trailing Newt Gingrich 3-1, Michelle Bachmann 4-1, and Ron Paul 6-1. At the park, speaking in front of nearly 9,000 people, he affirmed that all hope was not lost as he articulated his soaring vision of American exceptionalism:

“America is a living, breathing presence, unimpressed by what others say is impossible, proud of its own success; generous, yes, and naïve; sometimes wrong, never mean, always impatient to provide a better life for its people in a framework of a basic fairness and freedom.

“The crisis we face is not the result of any failure of the American spirit; it is the failure of our leaders to establish rational goals and give our people something to order their lives by. If I am elected, I shall regard my election as proof that the people of the United States have decided to set a new agenda and have recognized that the human spirit thrives best when goals are set and progress can be measured in their achievements.

“Americans have had a rendezvous with destiny ever since the moment in 1630 when John Winthrop told his followers, ‘We shall be a city upon a hill’. A troubled and afflicted mankind looks to us, pleading for us to keep our rendezvous with destiny; hoping that we will uphold the principles of self-reliance, self-discipline, morality, and, above all, responsible liberty for every individual; that we will become that shining city on a hill.”

At the press conference following his announcement, the candidate deftly fielded questions from skeptical reporters. When asked by one, “Mr. Reagan, aren’t you out of the mainstream of American life? Do you think the people want an extremist for president?” he cleverly responded with a question of his own: “Well, could you first cite for me one example of extremism from my two terms as governor of California, so I have a frame of reference with which to answer your question?” The room filled with laughter as the reporter sat on his hands, clearly dumbfounded. Many in the media had forgotten that, as California’s governor, Reagan had held weekly press conferences with the Sacramento media. Reagan was quite adept in these settings and, as a result, left this press conference unscathed.

Although Reagan might have earned respect from a handful of journalists, editorial pages across the country continued to rail against his “extreme and out of the mainstream” candidacy:

“The Reagan challenge to Mr. Romney comes from the right, the radical right, which cherishes notions that often are too simple, too negative, and too risky,” the Baltimore Sun wrote.

In turn, “Reagan’s challenge to Romney is patently ridiculous. The astonishing thing is that this amusing but frivolous Reagan fantasy is taken so seriously by the news media and particularly by Romney. It takes up a lot of news, but it makes no sense,” wrote New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman.

Finally, the Washington Post read, “It is unfair to expect accuracy or depth from Reagan, who seems destined to keep playing second lead, even to a bungler like Romney.”

Yet meanwhile, across the country, the Reagan storm was gathering strength. Voters had had a different reaction to Reagan than the press: the press conference video alone had received over 600,000 hits on YouTube within a day. Subscribers to Reagan’s fan pages on Facebook had grown tenfold. He was closing the gap.

Forty-eight hours before the Iowa caucuses, the campaign’s internal polling showed Reagan had climbed into second place, within four points of Romney.

Then, on January 3, the night of the Iowa Caucus, Reagan sat with Nancy in the dining room of Fleming’s Prime steakhouse in West Des Moines, celebrating his sixty-eighth birthday. Not long into the meal, his iPhone began buzzing. The news that came in was good. Turnout was massive. Reagan was leading in Polk County and Cedar Rapids: then, the former B-list actor and D-list candidate had conquered the Iowa caucuses.

More shocking than Reagan’s victory was the fate that befell Mitt Romney, who had actually finished third, behind Libertarian-leaning Ron Paul. At the Des Moines Omni Hotel, Romney was trying unsuccessfully to rein in his emotions. He sat in the living room of his suite, venting his frustrations. He was furious with New Jersey Governor Chris Christie for cutting a back-room deal that had funneled some of his support to Reagan, after assuring Romney’s campaign that he would make no such pact. Even worse was Romney’s fury toward the right-wing media, which he believed had brutalized him while handling Reagan with kid gloves.

The dimensions of Reagan’s win boggled Romney’s mind. Reagan had beaten him among Republicans and Independents, among rich and poor; he had even carried the women’s vote. Romney felt certain that Reagan’s victory would destroy any support he, Romney, still had among the fiscal conservatives. Twenty-four hours earlier, Romney had been the front-runner, the unstoppable and inevitable nominee. Now, Reagan stood as the most likely Republican nominee for President of the United States.

In an interview with Brit Hume that aired on Fox News, the normally unflappable Romney appeared flustered by the outcome, stating:

“We are not shocked by the results, no. We never believed that this would be anything but a tough, closely fought campaign that would go all the way down to the wire.

“I congratulate Governor Reagan on a solid victory, but now it’s on to New Hampshire, where I hope we can move away from these scare tactics and all of this misinformation and focus instead on the issues that really matter to most Americans: like jobs, jobs, jobs.”

When asked if his position on healthcare had cost him Iowa, Romney became agitated:

“Look that’s just the kind of thing I’m talking about. Governor Reagan and I both support the repeal of ObamaCare, okay? Our positions are virtually the same but the governor has successfully distorted my position, which is why I’m answering these kinds of questions instead of talking about the issues that really matter most to Americans, like the economy.”

Romney abruptly ended the interview, flashing his trademark smile while removing his earpiece and microphone before walking off the set. To make matters worse, a wire reporter overheard Matt Rhoades, Romney’s campaign manager and a man who was generally regarded as a savvy strategist, uttering, “I’m not going to rearrange the furniture on the Titanic!” The unfortunate quote was accompanied by an unflattering image of Rhoades looking disheveled in front of a table filled with half-empty liquor bottles. The image circulated across the blogosphere and settled on the main page of the Drudge Report for six hours under the one-word headline, “Sunk.”

In the meantime, second-place finisher Ron Paul stood onstage in the ballroom of the Renaissance Savoy Hotel in Des Moines, declaring a victory for his near win: “Thank you, Iowa! Together we just made the first step in bringing fiscal sanity back to Washington, D.C. Now we move on to New Hampshire!” Paul knew better than that, however. When he had first learned the outcome from his number crunchers, what he had really thought was, “Reagan must be stopped.” To have any chance in the contests in the states ahead, Paul needed to be positioned as the opposition candidate to the right of Romney in order to unleash a flood of contributions from conservative activist groups into his coffers. Now he was seeing his path to victory evaporate as Reagan had stolen the support of his most valuable constituency: the Tea Party. He covered up his feelings, though, boldly predicting to Fox News’ Neil Cavuto, “Reagan is our Howard Dean. He won’t get through February.”

In the living quarters of the White House, there was a shock of a different kind.

The Secret Service agent standing outside the door let Robert Gibbs enter the family’s quarters. Gibbs, the President’s press secretary during his turbulent first two years in office, now chaired Obama’s reelection campaign and had just learned the news.

Michelle Obama was sitting alone on the couch, watching American Idol. “Hey, Bob, how are you doing?” Michelle asked, without looking up from the television.

“How am I doing?” Gibbs asked, taken aback. “Haven’t you heard the news?”

“No.”

“Reagan is going to win Iowa. He has a path to winning the nomination.”

“What?” Michelle exclaimed, jumping to her feet.

The President emerged from his bedroom. Gibbs filled him in: Reagan was going to finish first, ahead of Ron Paul and a long way ahead of Romney.

Team Obama had hoped all along that Reagan would win, but none of the Washington smart set had given him much of a chance. Too extreme and too polarizing, they said. A country in crisis would never hand over the keys to Reagan. Internal polling indicated that if nominated, Reagan would lose to Obama by double digits.

The President breathed a sigh of relief. Obama’s camp had spent the past year fixated on Romney, believing that the moderate Republican, with a background in business and an unlimited bankroll, could have siphoned off the independent vote which had been so vital in handing Obama the 2008 election.

“Are you sure?” asked the President.

“I checked the numbers myself three times,” answered his aide. “It’s a done deal. We can stick a fork in Romney.”

Not everyone in the Democratic Party shared Obama’s optimism, though. Bill Clinton, watching the returns come in while on vacation in Martha’s Vineyard, turned to his wife Hillary and said, “We have a big problem here. This isn’t a campaign. It’s a movement.”