I've always found it ridiculous how Goldwater and other conservative Guardians of the Temple basically disowned Reagan for a VP pick. I mean, who gives a sh*t about the VP? It's not like he made any concession to moderates on policy or anything, but suddenly he was a traitor just for choosing a centrist running mate? It's weird because the Conservative movement, at least up to the 90s, has generally been pretty pragmatic in its conquest of power.
Well, it wasn't really that much diffrent from Buchanan threatening to launch a third-party bid if Dole chooses a pro-choice candidate. Some things aren't that new as we use to think.
