When naysayers worry that the Romney campaign has over-indulged the ideology, the answer quickly comes: “Well, Reagan was ideological in 1980 — and he still won. Why can’t Romney do the same, especially since the economy is even worse now than it was then?”
Fair answer. Here’s the difference: Although Ronald Reagan was a highly ideological candidate, he did not run a highly ideological campaign. Quite the contrary! Precisely because party conservatives trusted Reagan’s ideological commitment, they allowed him space to move to the center.
Seeking the GOP nomination in 1976, Reagan had pledged large immediate cuts in federal spending ($90 billion, at a time when that was a lot of money). In 1980, Reagan emphasized an easier-to-swallow message of tax cuts, not spending cuts — and indeed promised that he’d protect the Medicare program he’d opposed when it was created in the mid-1960s.
No such leeway for Mitt Romney.
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