Searching in Vain: The Failed Attempt to Find Ronald Reagan in 2008

This article provides an analysis of the Republican Party nomination for the presidential election of 2008 and discusses the result of the general election. It examines the campaigns of Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, Ron Paul, and John McCain as they battled their way through the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Florida primaries. Candidates’ views on the issues, their financial support, and individual campaign strategies are considered and compared. The artcile concludes that the winner of the Republican nomination, McCain, struggled to invigorate the Republican Party and garner enough support to win in the general election. His performance in the campaign is measured and critiqued. The 2008 presidential election will be remembered as one of the most significant elections in the history of the United States. In the Democratic primary, a woman ran against an African American man for the nomination. Meanwhile the Republican Party attempted to find another Ronald Reagan-like nominee. Republican candidates strove to compare themselves with Reagan, yet no single candidate embodied Reaganite conservative values. The Gingrich Republican movement of the 1990s had morphed into Bush-fueled pessimism (Balz & Johnson, 2009, p. 229). The low public approval of President George W. Bush— about 30% in 2008—created a general distaste for the Republican Party and further decreased the party’s chances of winning the presidential election ( Jones, 2009). The search for a candidate in the mold of Ronald Reagan gathered a wide range of individuals across the ideological spectrum. On the left stood former New York City Mayor, Rudy Giuliani, a pro-choice, pro-gun control supporter of gay rights (OnTheIssues.org, 2008b). Despite these positions, Giuliani made a serious effort at a campaign, although he put very little effort into campaigning in Iowa and New Hampshire, focusing on winning the Florida primary and the “Super Tuesday” states (Balz & Johnson, 2009, p. 266). On the right end of the ideological spectrum stood Ron Paul, a libertarianleaning congressman from Texas, who was affectionately known as “Dr. No” because he voted against nearly every piece of legislation and federal policy he came across (Gwyne, 2001). Between these were several other contenders who represented slightly different views. Part one of this paper explores the campaigns of the four top contenders for the nomination: Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, Paul, and John McCain, focusing on the positive and negative aspects of their campaigns. Part two focuses on the winner of the nomination, John McCain, and his experiences in the general election, critiquing his strategy while acknowledging the historical context of the election. I. Finding the Nominee