Will Democratic Convention Devolve to Party Revolution?

For the first time in many years, Democrats are going to replace the incumbent president Joe Biden with Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic Party nominee for president in 2024.

Harris appears to be on the way to the nomination though there are grumbles from some Democrats who know what a weak general election candidate she will be, despite the best efforts of the intelligentsia to boost her deeply flawed career.

It remains to be seen how this will all play out, but in 1976, at the GOP quadrennial gathering in Kansas City, history was made as the GOP was transformed and a revolution launched.

Joe Biden is no Ronald Reagan. Not by a long shot.

Reagan has gone down as one of our four greatest presidents.

Biden will go down as one of our four worst. That is a certitude.

But history, at least according to Mark Twain, "History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes."

Gerald Ford, often referred to "His Accidency," describing how he had ascended to the presidency not through the ballot box but by the jury box as Vice President Spiro T. Agnew (under President Richard M. Nixon) was caught red-handed with his hand in the cookie jar; taking bribes from Maryland contractors and grocers.

Even as vice president free groceries were delivered to his residency.

Agnew has few friends and fewer defenders, but he was the leading candidate for the 1976 GOP presidential nomination.

Agnew of course was gone in short order, along with his mistress from the vice-presidential staff, basically never to be heard from again.

Nixon held on a bit longer, but was finally hung with his own secret tapes, proving he planned the coverup of the Watergate break in by some of his own campaign staffers.

Thus, Ford ascended to the vice presidency and finally the presidency, first nominated by Nixon to be vice president and then the presidency in August of 1974.

Initially, Ford said he would only serve out Nixon's unexpired term but soon developed a taste for the trappings of power and abruptly announced he would seek a term in his own right.

But the very nationally popular former governor of California, Ronald Reagan stood in Ford's way.

Reagan had plenty of reasons to run in an increasingly conservative GOP.

Now freed of Nixon’s yoke, Ford was out of place in that conservative party.

Nixon cut deals with the Soviets.

So, Ford did likewise.

Nixon appointed liberals to the courts.

So, Ford did likewise.

Nixon pursued many liberal objectives.

So, Ford did likewise.

The final straw was Ford's snubbing of the Nobel Prize winning author, Alexandr Solzhenitsyn, on the advice of uber-neocon U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, to not insult the Soviets.

For Reagan, that was it. He was infuriated at Ford's knuckling under to Moscow.

So, he plunged into the campaign. At the time, there were 30 primaries and state conventions and the two wrestled for every bit of advantage.

First Ford won primaries, then Reagan won primaries.

Ford won state conventions, then Reagan won state conventions.

They arrived in Kansas City, neither having enough delegates for a first ballot nomination.

As I outline in my book, "Reagans Revolution: The Untold Story Of The Campaign That Started It All":

Underhanded deals were cut, offers of attendances at state dinners were made, the Ford forces used every means at their disposal, legitimate and otherwise, to win the nomination.

It was a nailbiter.

Rides on Air Force One, trinkets, private meeting in the Oval Office with President Ford, and a sewer contract were offered; Ford used everything.

There were also questionable shenanigans in the New Jersey, Mississippi and Ohio delegations.

Finally, in the end, Ford won the nomination but by only 69 delegates out of over 2,200 in attendance; less than two percent.

But something remarkable happened the last night of the convention.

At the last minute, Reagan was asked to give an speech to the assembled 17,000 Republicans and the national media.

Reagan gave an impromptu speech that upstages the president, electrified the convention and in so doing launched a new GOP, a political revolution, and an event-making presidency four years later.

Ford won the nomination, but Reagan won their hearts.

Reagan's thunderous, history altering speech leads one delegate to exclaim, "Oh my God, we've nominated the wrong man!"

Craig Shirley is the Chairman of Citizens for the Republic, as well as a Ronald Reagan biographer and presidential historian having written six books on Reagan. He's also written The New York Times bestseller, "December, 1941" and also published the companion book, "April, 1945." He's also the author of the book "Mary Ball Washington," which won the People’s Choice Award from the Library of Virginia. His book on the 1980 presidential campaign, "Rendezvous with Destiny" was named by The Wall Street Journal as one of the five best campaign books of all time. Shirley is also the author of the newly released bestseller, "The Search for Reagan" and is now writing a book about the 2024 Trump campaign tentatively entitled, "Comeback." Read Craig Shirley's Reports — More Here.