They didn't know it yet in Burbank, ...
... but Jimmy Carter and President Ford are going to win today 1976's New Hampshire presidential primary.
I just love art like that (from Collier's 1977 Year Book Covering the Year 1976) and this (from this 1976 week's TV Guide).
Comments flow.
The 1976 primaries represent a major break from the last 16 years of American politics, which have been largely dominated by the fallout from the epic Kennedy/Nixon battle of 1960. Both parties are discombobulated by the failure in Vietnam, the impeachment of Nixon, and the ongoing problems with the U.S. economy. For once, the mainstream press doesn't really have much advice to give the voters, because the press itself doesn't see much of a path forward. Left to their own devices, the voters will try all sorts of experiments, and we won't have another clear consensus until after the election of 1996. On the other hand, by the time we get to 1996, most of the political problems facing the country in 1976 will be resolved, which indicates that the voters did a pretty good job.
ReplyDeleteYeah!
ReplyDeleteThank you for weighing in with this.
ReplyDeleteI cannot begin to express to you how big a deal Jimmy Carter and all of the Carters were in my house at this point. Dad is going to drift by the late 1970s, but they never lost Mom. One of the first things Mom and I did together after Dad died in 1999 was go visit Plains, Georgia.
ReplyDeleteMom also supported Dick Enberg/Merlin Olsen vs. Pat Summerall/John Madden as we moved into the 1980s. Dad was totally off Carter by 1980, but he was split on the football commentators. Dad was totally good with Bobby Knight, but Mom and I were totally down on him and mostly stuck with Joe B. She and I also never left Don Shula and the Dolphins, but Dad took his love to town with Chuck Noll and Terry Bradshaw.
By 1984 and '85, our house had re-united around Walter Mondale/Geraldine Ferraro, Dan Marino (though Dad thought Don Shula held him back) and Eddie Sutton (though Mom didn't like his hair).
Peggy Noonan was great on President Carter a couple of days ago, by the way.
ReplyDeleteHere were the Republican results in New Hampshire, with 283 of 299 precincts reporting, per the Wednesday-morning Boston Globe:
ReplyDelete1. Ford 50,212
2. Reagan 49,311
And the Democratic results:
1. Carter 20,802 (30 percent)
2. Udall 16,241 (24 percent
3. Bayh 11,338 (16 percent)
4. Shriver 5,980 (9 percent)
5. Humphrey 3,693 (5 percent)
6-15. Blest, McCormick, Wallace, Jackson, Arnold, Schechter, Clegg, Bona, Leewenherz, Kelleher
It's fun to think about whom the roasters at this Friday, Feb. 27, 1976, Dean Martin Roast of Dean Martin voted for in their states' primaries and/or general election.
ReplyDeleteDon "Rickles performed at the inaugurations of Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush with his friend Frank Sinatra,[54] although Rickles himself was a "lifelong" Democrat," says Wikipedia.
ReplyDeleteOrson "Welles was politically active from the beginning of his career. He remained aligned with left-wing politics and the American Left throughout his life,[188] and always defined his political orientation as 'progressive'. ... Welles spoke before a crowd of 700,000 at a nuclear disarmament rally in Central Park on June 12, 1982, and attacked the policies of President Ronald Reagan and the Republican party."
ReplyDeleteJoe "Namath was the only athlete listed on the master list of Richard Nixon's political opponents which was made public in 1973 during the Watergate investigation, erroneously listed as playing for the New York Giants. White House Counsel John Dean claimed not to know why Namath was included on the list and suggested that it may have been a mistake."
ReplyDelete"At the 1976 Republican National Convention, (Sen. Barry) Goldwater helped block Nelson Rockefeller's renomination as vice president. When Reagan challenged Gerald Ford for the presidential nomination in 1976, Goldwater endorsed the incumbent Ford, looking for consensus rather than conservative idealism. As one historian notes, 'The Arizonan had lost much of his zest for battle.'"
ReplyDeleteAngie "Dickinson was married to Gene Dickinson, a former football player, from 1952 to 1960. During her first marriage, Dickinson became close friends with John Kenneth Galbraith and Catherine Galbraith. Her extensive visits to them and her touring when Galbraith was U.S. Ambassador to India are amply recounted in his memoirs Ambassador's Journal and A Life in Our Times. ... In a 2006 interview with NPR, Dickinson stated that she was a Democrat.[23] She campaigned for Kennedy's presidential campaign in 1960 and supported Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964."
ReplyDelete"In 1974, (Muhammad Ali) visited a Palestinian refugee camp in Southern Lebanon, where Ali declared 'support for the Palestinian struggle to liberate their homeland.' ... In early 1980, Ali was recruited by President Jimmy Carter for a diplomatic mission to Africa, in an effort to persuade a number of African governments to join the US-led boycott of the Moscow Olympics in protest of the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan. ...
ReplyDeleteIn 1984, Ali announced his support for the re-election of United States President Ronald Reagan. When asked to elaborate on his endorsement of Reagan, Ali told reporters, 'He's keeping God in schools and that's enough.'"
Jimmy "Stewart was a staunch conservative Republican throughout his life. ... Stewart actively supported Ronald Reagan's bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 1976.[338] He attended Reagan's campaign rallies, in one speech assuring that he was more conservative than ever, regardless of the death of his son in the Vietnam War."
ReplyDeleteOne of the greatest SNL sketches of all time includes a section where Jimmy Stewart (played, I think, by Dana Carvey) shows up to visit Reagan (played by Phil Hartman) at the White House.
DeleteGene "Kelly was a lifelong supporter of the Democratic Party."
ReplyDelete"On April 22, 1974, (Hubert) Humphrey said that he would not enter the upcoming Democratic presidential primary for the 1976 Presidential election. Humphrey said at the time that he was urging fellow Senator and Minnesotan Walter Mondale to run, despite believing that Ted Kennedy would enter the race as well. ... On April 12, 1976, Chairman of the New Jersey Democratic Party State Senator James P. Dugan said the selection of a majority of uncommitted delegates could be interpreted as a victory for Humphrey, who had indicated his availability as a presidential candidate for the convention.[242] Humphrey announced his choice to not enter the New Jersey primary nor authorize any committees to work to support him during an April 29, 1976, appearance in the Senate Caucus Room.[243] Even after Jimmy Carter had won enough delegates to clinch the nomination, many still wanted Humphrey to announce his availability for a draft. However, he did not do so, and Carter easily secured the nomination on the first round of balloting. Humphrey had learned that he had terminal cancer, prompting him to sit the race out."
ReplyDelete"Throughout most of his life, Wayne was a vocally prominent conservative Republican in Hollywood, supporting anti-communist positions. ... Wayne openly differed with many conservatives over the issue of returning the Panama Canal, as he supported the Panama Canal Treaty in the mid-1970s;[111] while Republican leaders such as Reagan, Jesse Helms, and Strom Thurmond had wanted the U.S. to retain full control of the canal, Wayne and fellow conservative William F. Buckley believed that the Panamanians had the right to the canal and sided with President Jimmy Carter. Wayne was a close friend of Panamanian leader Omar Torrijos Herrera, and Wayne's first wife Josephine was a native of Panama. His support of the treaty brought him hate mail for the first time in his life."
ReplyDeleteRich "Little frequently appears on former Governor Mike Huckabee's cable show on the Trinity Broadcast Network. He has been a guest more than any other person, appearing as recently as January 2023."
ReplyDeleteTony "Orlando is a longtime advocate for U.S. military veterans and "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree" has become an anthem for service members.[27][28][29] Orlando serves on the board of directors for the Eisenhower Foundation, as well as honorary chairman of Snowball Express, an organization that serves the children of fallen military heroes.[2] He hosts the annual Congressional Medal of Honor dinner in Dallas, Texas. He has served as the master of ceremonies at the Secretary of Defense Freedom Awards at the Pentagon in Washington, DC.[18][30] ... Orlando was interviewed on The 700 Club explaining that he was raised Catholic and was "brought up with the Lord as my Savior"; but after a self-destructive period following his professional success with Dawn, he became a born-again Christian in 1978."
ReplyDelete"Bob Hope strongly supported his acting colleague Ronald Reagan’s entry into politics.
ReplyDeleteWikipedia has zero on the politics of Paul Lynde, Charlie Callas, Joey Bishop, Ruth Buzzi, Georgia Engel, Nipsey Russell or Foster Brooks of Louisville.
ReplyDeleteI love The Hindenburg, and, for the life of me, I don't know why I am such a sucker for movies like that.
ReplyDeleteABC NEWSLINE. . .ABC NEWSLINE. . .IN THE MASSACHUSETTS REPUBLICAN PRIMARY. ABC NEWS PROJECTS THAT GERALD FORD WILL WIN BY A WIDE MARGIN. REPEATING. . .ABC NEWS PROJECTS A FORD VICTORY IN MASSACHUSETTS. WATCH A COMPLETE PRIMARY WRAP-UP TONIGHT AT 11:30 P.M.. 10:30 P.M. CENTRAL TIME.
ReplyDeleteI'm stunned that Republicans in Massachusetts voted for the Establishment's preferred candidate.
DeleteThe Montreal 1976 Summer Olympics are scheduled to begin July 17, but don't expect to see Pezavan Whatley of Chattanooga, Tennessee, competing for Team USA in wrestling. And that's a shame because, according to the Universal Wrestling Association commentators on WTVF today in 1976, "Pistol Pez" would've been a medal contender.
ReplyDeleteHuge primary for the Democrats on March 9, as Florida decides between Jimmy Carter, George Wallace, and Scoop Jackson.
ReplyDeleteThese "FIRST TIME HEARING" videos where we watch someone listen to a song for a first time ... these things are one of those happy, unimagined innovations that get created on top of inventions like the internet and YouTube that make me so thankful for people who put money and effort to stuff at the ground floor.
ReplyDelete