Are conservative Republicans having issues with Mitt Romney because he is a Rockefeller Republican (“moderate Republican”)?
The passage of the Civil Rights Act that launched the rise of Ronald Reagan. Goldwater said he supported the white Southern) position on civil rights, which was that each and every state had a sovereign right to control its laws. Ronald Reagan was key to the South’s transition to Republican politics. During the 1964 campaign, Reagan gave speeches in support of Goldwater.
In 1976, Reagan sought the Republican nomination against the incumbent President Gerald Ford (Republican). Reagan portrayed himself as Goldwater’s heir while criticizing Ford as a captive of Eastern establishment Republicans fixated on forced integration. Reagan lost the nomination to Ford in 1976. Jimmy Carter would beat Ford. But the former California governor ran for the presidency again in 1980 and would win the presidency over Jimmy Carter.
Reagan flirted with the possibility of making former president Gerald Ford his running mate in 1980, the former president was Reagan’s bitter adversary in the 1976 primaries. Reagan’s selection of George H.W. Bush in Detroit represented a turnabout that came only when the negotiations with former President Gerald Ford, having taken on a life of their own, appeared to have reached an impasse. One conventional view is that Reagan, about to be nominated, recognized that he “needed a moderate Republican” like Bush to balance the ticket; another version has it that Reagan, supposedly unschooled in foreign affairs, saw the wisdom of naming someone with extensive experience in the field to offset his own shortcomings. Yet, another explanation holds that Reagan, a Californian, needed “geographic balance” and got that in Bush, with his Connecticut and Texas lineage. Many say that These explanations are wrong and came due to other behind-the-scenes maneuvering.
By 1988, the Republicans had chosen Prescott Bush’s son, George H. W. Bush as its presidential candidate on a conservative platform. George H. W. Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts. The Bush family moved from Milton to Greenwich, Connecticut shortly after his birth. Prescott Bush often agreed with New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, but personally disliked and politically opposed him, despite the close relationship his father had with the Rockefeller family. During the 1964 election, Prescott Bush denounced Rockefeller for divorcing his first wife and marrying a woman about 20 years his junior with whom Rockefeller had been having an affair while married to his first wife.
Willard Mitt Romney was the 70th Governor of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007
Mitt Romney from the 7th grade on, attended Cranbrook School in Bloomfield Hills, a private boys preparatory school.
Romney attended Stanford University for a year and left for Europe to do missionary work.
Romney had initially received a student deferment from the Vietnam War, like most other Mormon missionaries a ministerial deferment while in France, then another student deferment.
After he returned he would attend Brigham Young University. He graduated from Brigham Young in 1971, earning a Bachelor of Arts in English.
Mitt Romney became one of only fifteen students to enroll at the recently created joint Juris Doctor/Master of Business Administration four-year program coordinated between Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School.
The top academic honor at Harvard Business School is the Baker Scholar designation (High Distinction), given to the top 5% of the graduating MBA class. Mitt graduated in 1975 cum laude from the law school, in the top third of that class, and was named a Baker Scholar.
Mitt Romney graduated and then worked for Boston Consulting Group (BCG).
In 1977, Mitt was hired by Bain & Company, a management consulting firm in Boston formed by Bill Bain and other former BCG employees.
Romney became a vice president of Bain & Company in 1978 at the age of 31.
In 1984, Mitt Romney, at the age of 37, left Bain & Company to co-found the spin-off private equity investment firm, Bain Capital. Their first big success came with a 1986 investment to help start Staples Inc., after founder Thomas G. Stemberg convinced Romney of the market size for office supplies. The firm invested in or acquired many well-known companies such as Accuride, Brookstone, Domino’s Pizza, Sealy Corporation, Sports Authority, and Artisan Entertainment.
In 1990, Mitt Romney was asked to return to Bain & Company, which was facing financial collapse. He was announced as its new CEO in January 1991. Within about a year, he had led Bain & Company through a turnaround and returned the firm to profitability without further layoffs or partner defections. Mitt turned Bain & Company over to new leadership.
Mitt would then returned to Bain Capital in December 1992.
Mitt would take on Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy in 1994. Romney changed his affiliation from Independent to Republican in October 1993. Kennedy won the election with 58% of the vote to Romney’s 41%.
Romney returned to Bain Capital.
Romney left Bain Capital on February 11, 1999 to serve as the President and CEO of the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic Games Organizing Committee. Despite the initial fiscal shortfall, the Games ended up clearing a profit of $100 million.
Romney was elected Governor of Massachusetts in November 2002 with 50% of the vote over his Democratic opponent, Massachusetts State Treasurer Shannon O’Brien, who received 45%. Romney was sworn in as the 70th governor of Massachusetts on January 2, 2003.
On April 12, 2006, Romney signed the resulting Massachusetts health reform law, which requires nearly all Massachusetts residents to buy health insurance coverage or face escalating tax penalties such as the loss of their personal income tax exemption.
Midway through his term, Romney decided that he wanted to stage a full-time run for president, and on December 14, 2005, Romney announced that he would not seek re-election for a second term as governor.
As chair of the Republican Governors Association, Romney traveled around the country, meeting prominent Republicans and building a national political network.
Democrat Deval Patrick would beat Republican Kerry Healey in the 2006 Massachusetts gubernatorial election.
Romney’s term ended January 4, 2007.
Romney formally announced his candidacy for the 2008 Republican nomination for president on February 13, 2007.
Romney won 11 primaries and caucuses and received about 4.7 million total votes, and gained about 280 delegates. Romney spent $110 million during the campaign, including $45 million of his own money.
On April 11, 2011, Romney announced in a video taped outdoors at the University of New Hampshire that he had formed an exploratory committee as a first step for a potential run for the Republican presidential nomination.
Dilemma X 
January 16, 2012
Government/Politics