Those of us who are old enough to remember the 1980 election can’t help but compare it with last night. After losing the 1976 primary to Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan made himself the anti-Carter. Whatever Carter did, the media would find Reagan of the opposite opinion. <\/p>\n
When the media wasn’t asking him, Reagan would use the only conservative media outlets to talk to Americans directly without the filter. Back then, there was only Commentary and the National Review magazines and William F. Buckley’s “Firing Line” TV show. Reagan or one of his supporters would appear at every opportunity in one of those mediums.<\/p>\n
Reagan was also portrayed by Democrats to be a wild-eyed loose cannon who shouldn’t have his finger on the button – it had worked for them against Goldwater in 1964. Sound familiar?<\/p>\n
Trump has been doing the media thing since 2012 by calling in to Fox & Friends every Monday morning at about 8 AM. That way, Trump got around the media to talk directly to a large group of conservative Americans and he became the anti-Obama so that folks who opposed the way Obama was running the country associated electing Trump as being the way to fix that – the same way they associated Reagan as the cure for Carter. Trump message didn’t have to run his message through a media filter on Fox News.<\/p>\n
That worked for Reagan and again for Trump, so you can be sure that no other Republican will ever do it again.<\/p>\n
The Trump campaign is now touting “secret” Trump voters for pushing him over the top last night. I can plead guilty to that label. I wasn’t sure how I was going to vote right up until yesterday morning when I watched a clip of Clinton screeching at her supporters and I decided that anything I did other than vote for Trump would subject me to that shrieking harpy’s voice for four years. So, I didn’t make up my mind until yesterday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"