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.
Goldwater wasn't the delusional type either. His own running mate was rather moderate IIRC.