If there were no third parties....

[Bleeding heart conservative, HTMLdon]

1948: Dewey
1952: Eisenhower
1956: Eisenhower
1960: Nixon
1964: Goldwater
1968: Nixon
1972: Nixon
1976: Ford
1980: Reagan
1984: Reagan
1988: Bush
1992: Bush
1996: Dole
2000: Bush
2004: Bush
2008: McCain

[Bleeding heart conservative, HTMLdon]

1964: Goldwater
1980: Reagan
1984: Reagan

But they're extremists!!!1!

Today Goldwater would be considered an eeevil liberal RINO that must be expelled from the GOP by our tea-partying friends.   Not just because of his advocacy for sane social views later in his life, but Goldwater opposed JFK's tax cuts because he feared they would dramatically increase the deficit.  Nowadays there is no room in the Republican Party for anyone who opposes any sort of tax decrease.

Reagan was a moderately conservative President.  While I would have opposed him in '76 relative to Ford, overall he wasn't an extremist at all.

[Bleeding heart conservative, HTMLdon]

Ah, so you consider being pro-abortion to be the "sane" position, Donny. Good to know.

I was mainly referring to his views about all Americans being able to serve their country in its armed forces.  If Goldwater was pro-choice then course I would disagree with that.  The problem is that your buddies in the RINO-hunting movement would force him out of the Party, while I'd still vote for him.