Candidate Selection Quotes



Since the early 20th century, conservatives have nominated candidates who were ideologically pure but so extreme that they offended too much of the electorate to get elected. Buckley advocated weeding these candidates out, His principle became very material in the early 21st century when the conservative fundamentalist Tea Party unseated strong conservative incumbents in primary elections in favor over more extreme conservative candidates who could not win general elections.


When Lyndon Johnson was elected Vice President he, as the former Senate Majority Leader, wanted to lead the Democratic Senate Caucus. Gore objected because he thought that violated the separation of powers between the Executive and the Legislative branches, and he wanted the Senate to be independent from the administration. Despite Gore’s objection, Johnson was elected.


He was a liberal Republican in an era where the Republican paty was controlled by arch conservatives, the Tea Party extremists, and evangelical Protestants while Gullani was divorced, a Catholic, and lived openly with a woman to whom he was not married. He supported a woman’s right to abortion and gay rights.


This is one of the great erroneous predictions of American political history. He was not nominated on the second ballot. Nor on the third; Lincoln was