Many in the media had forgotten that, as California’s governor, Reagan had held weekly press conferences with the Sacramento media. Reagan was quite adept in these settings and, as a result, left this press conference unscathed.
Although Reagan might have earned respect from a handful of journalists, editorial pages across the country continued to rail against his “extreme and out of the mainstream” candidacy:
“The Reagan challenge to Mr. Romney comes from the right, the radical right, which cherishes notions that often are too simple, too negative, and too risky,” the Baltimore Sun wrote.
In turn, “Reagan’s challenge to Romney is patently ridiculous. The astonishing thing is that this amusing but frivolous Reagan fantasy is taken so seriously by the news media and particularly by Romney. It takes up a lot of news, but it makes no sense,” wrote New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman.
Finally, the Washington Post read, “It is unfair to expect accuracy or depth from Reagan, who seems destined to keep playing second lead, even to a bungler like Romney.”
Yet meanwhile, across the country, the Reagan storm was gathering strength. Voters had had a different reaction to Reagan than the press: the press conference video alone had received over 600,000 hits on YouTube within a day. Subscribers to Reagan’s fan pages on Facebook had grown tenfold. He was closing the gap.
Forty-eight hours before the Iowa caucuses, the campaign’s internal polling showed Reagan had climbed into second place, within four points of Romney.
Then, on January 3, the night of the Iowa Caucus, Reagan sat with Nancy in the dining room of Fleming’s Prime steakhouse in West Des Moines, celebrating his sixty-eighth birthday. Not long into the meal, his iPhone began buzzing. The news that came in was good. Turnout was massive. Reagan was leading in Polk County and Cedar Rapids: then, the former B-list actor and D-list candidate had conquered the Iowa caucuses.
More shocking than Reagan’s victory was the fate that befell Mitt Romney, who had actually finished third, behind Libertarian-leaning Ron Paul. At the Des Moines Omni Hotel, Romney was trying unsuccessfully to rein in his emotions. He sat in the living room of his suite, venting his frustrations. He was furious with New Jersey Governor Chris Christie for cutting a back-room deal that had funneled some of his support to Reagan, after assuring Romney’s campaign that he would make no such pact. Even worse was Romney’s fury toward the right-wing media, which he believed had brutalized him while handling Reagan with kid gloves.
The dimensions of Reagan’s win boggled Romney’s mind. Reagan had beaten him among Republicans and Independents, among rich and poor; he had even carried the women’s vote. Romney felt certain that Reagan’s victory would destroy any support he, Romney, still had among the fiscal conservatives. Twenty-four hours earlier, Romney had been the front-runner, the unstoppable and inevitable nominee. Now, Reagan stood as the most likely Republican nominee for President of the United States.
In an interview with Brit Hume that aired on Fox News, the normally unflappable Romney appeared flustered by the outcome, stating:
“We are not shocked by the results, no. We never believed that this would be anything but a tough, closely fought campaign that would go all the way down to the wire.
“I congratulate Governor Reagan on a solid victory, but now it’s on to New Hampshire, where I hope we can move away from these scare tactics and all of this misinformation and focus instead on the issues that really matter to most Americans: like jobs, jobs, jobs.”
When asked if his position on healthcare had cost him Iowa, Romney became agitated:
“Look that’s just the kind of thing I’m talking about. Governor Reagan and I both support the repeal of ObamaCare, okay? Our positions are virtually the same but the governor has successfully distorted my position, which is why I’m answering these kinds of questions instead of talking about the issues that really matter most to Americans, like the economy.”
Romney abruptly ended the interview, flashing his trademark smile while removing his earpiece and microphone before walking off the set. To make matters worse, a wire reporter overheard Matt Rhoades, Romney’s campaign manager and a man who was generally regarded as a savvy strategist, uttering, “I’m not going to rearrange the furniture on the Titanic!” The unfortunate quote was accompanied by an unflattering image of Rhoades looking disheveled in front of a table filled with half-empty liquor bottles. The image circulated across the blogosphere and settled on the main page of the Drudge Report for six hours under the one-word headline, “Sunk.”
In the meantime, second-place finisher Ron Paul stood onstage in the ballroom of the Renaissance Savoy Hotel in Des Moines, declaring a victory for his near win: “Thank you, Iowa! Together we just made the first step in bringing fiscal sanity back to Washington, D.C. Now we move on to New Hampshire!” Paul knew better than that, however. When he had first learned the outcome from his number crunchers, what he had really thought was, “Reagan must be stopped.” To have any chance in the contests in the states ahead, Paul needed to be positioned as the opposition candidate to the right of Romney in order to unleash a flood of contributions from conservative activist groups into his coffers. Now he was seeing his path to victory evaporate as Reagan had stolen the support of his most valuable constituency: the Tea Party. He covered up his feelings, though, boldly predicting to Fox News’ Neil Cavuto, “Reagan is our Howard Dean. He won’t get through February.”
In the living quarters of the White House, there was a shock of a different kind.
The Secret Service agent standing outside the door let Robert Gibbs enter the family’s quarters. Gibbs, the President’s press secretary during his turbulent first two years in office, now chaired Obama’s reelection campaign and had just learned the news.
Michelle Obama was sitting alone on the couch, watching American Idol. “Hey, Bob, how are you doing?” Michelle asked, without looking up from the television.
“How am I doing?” Gibbs asked, taken aback. “Haven’t you heard the news?”
“No.”
“Reagan is going to win Iowa. He has a path to winning the nomination.”
“What?” Michelle exclaimed, jumping to her feet.
The President emerged from his bedroom. Gibbs filled him in: Reagan was going to finish first, ahead of Ron Paul and a long way ahead of Romney.
Team Obama had hoped all along that Reagan would win, but none of the Washington smart set had given him much of a chance. Too extreme and too polarizing, they said. A country in crisis would never hand over the keys to Reagan. Internal polling indicated that if nominated, Reagan would lose to Obama by double digits.
The President breathed a sigh of relief. Obama’s camp had spent the past year fixated on Romney, believing that the moderate Republican, with a background in business and an unlimited bankroll, could have siphoned off the independent vote which had been so vital in handing Obama the 2008 election.
“Are you sure?” asked the President.
“I checked the numbers myself three times,” answered his aide. “It’s a done deal. We can stick a fork in Romney.”
Not everyone in the Democratic Party shared Obama’s optimism, though. Bill Clinton, watching the returns come in while on vacation in Martha’s Vineyard, turned to his wife Hillary and said, “We have a big problem here. This isn’t a campaign. It’s a movement.”
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