Barry Goldwater news stories on Newser

Is Gingrich the Next Goldwater?

Matt Cantor — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 13:33:28 CST

If Newt Gingrich manages to defy party elites and score the nomination, it's pretty much "suicide" for Republicans: "Everything about Newt Gingrich screams 'general election disaster,'" writes Steve Kornacki in Salon , from his "personal and ethical baggage" to his "arrogance." Indeed, his favorability score is less than half his...

Palin Will Be the 2012 Nominee

Kevin Spak — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 11:39:19 CST

She may be hugely polarizing, but Sarah Palin’s the odds-on favorite to win the GOP presidential nomination in 2012, thanks to the party’s winner-take-all primary system. The party establishment may not want Palin, but if she can maintain, say, 35% support in a multi-candidate field, she could win a few...

In 2012, GOP Goes With Heart (Palin) Over Head (Romney)

Will McCahill — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 19:13:06 CDT

No matter what kind of gains Republicans make in the midterm elections next year, it’s going to be tough to unseat President Obama—and that’s why the GOP is going to choose Sarah Palin, its heart’s preferred candidate, over Mitt Romney, its head’s favorite. Or as Matt Lewis puts it,...

Robinson, Now a 'GOP Hero,' Hated GOP

Kevin Spak — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 09:40:48 CDT

Whoops. The RNC’s new “GOP Heroes” website devotes a page to baseball legend Jackie Robinson, declaring him a “great Republican” who campaigned for Richard Nixon and Nelson Rockefeller. There’s just one problem: Robinson was a registered independent who professed he’d “never identified with one party or another,” and condemned the...

Kennedy's Senate Class Full of Lions

Kevin Spak — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 08:05:18 CDT

It’s no wonder Ted Kennedy became a lion of the Senate, writes Tom Schaller of FiveThirtyEight.com: he learned from the best. Kennedy began his first full term with the 88th Congress in 1963, and the list of senators sworn in alongside him contains “a safari’s worth of talent.” Including:...

As Calif. Righty Bastion, Orange County Cedes to Rural Placer

Harry Kimball — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:20:01 CDT

Placer County, Calif.—stretching from Sacramento east to Lake Tahoe—is this generation’s Orange County, and that bodes ill for conservatives, Tom Schaller writes on FiveThirtyEight.com. Placer’s demographics and voting record are similar to the Orange County of the 1960s, which birthed the modern conservative movement. But, Schaller writes,...

RNC Recycles LBJ 'Daisy' Ad to Bash Obama on Gitmo

Gabriel Winant — Fri, 22 May 2009 10:39:01 CDT

RNC chairman Michael Steele has rolled out an ad remixing an LBJ classic on nuclear war to warn about the danger of closing Guantanamo. The infamous 1964 spot used images of a little girl plucking petals off a daisy juxtaposed with a nuclear explosion to illustrate the risk of Armageddon....

Abortion 'Purity Test' Is New to Republicans

Matt Cantor — Fri, 15 May 2009 13:45:02 CDT

Abortion has become “the purity test for remaining in the GOP’s inner circle,” writes Ellen Goodman in the Boston Globe : The Republican Party is shedding and shunning abortion-rights supporters it once called its own. But it wasn’t always that way—even “Mr. Conservative” Barry Goldwater supported a woman’s right to...

What the GOP Needs Is a John Wayne

Jason Farago — Tue, 05 May 2009 09:28:12 CDT

Republicans have admired Westerns for decades, continually flocking to leaders—Goldwater, Reagan, Bush, Palin—who embody the John Wayne ideal of individualism and bravery. But as David Brooks writes, Westerns aren't really about lone heroes, but "civic order": how newcomers build communities in inhospitable regions. For the New York Times...