Already a two-time loser in Republican Presidential politics, 69-year-old Ronald Reagan limped into the Granite State in February of 1980, trailing George Bush by double digits in some polls.
Desperate to save his candidate, Reagan campaign manager John Sears pitched a mano-a-mano debate with Bush but only one newspaper agreed to sponsor the event The Nashua (N.H.) Telegraph.
When a last-minute Reagan stunt threw the night into chaos and the Telegraph moderator tried to take control: "Would the sound man please turn Mr. Reagan's mic off...?" Reagan's indignant, fiery response: "I'm paying for this microphone, Mr. Green" not only won the night, it likely won him the Republican nomination and perhapswith it, the1980 Presidency.
When historian Robert Dallek later wrote "Perhaps no one opened the way to Donald Trump's presidency more than Ronald Reagan,' he was talking about what happened in the Nashua High gym on February 23, 1980.
Reagan's performance that night changed our politics, pointing the way to Donald Trump and our current chaos.