The 1966 Game: Who Is Reagan Now

This is the big one.

First, let’s remember a few facts about 1966. Ronald Reagan was nobody, well nearly nobody. He was an out-of-work actor who had hosted a TV show, "Death Valley Days," and made one speech of importance. In that speech, he nominated a man for President who would get just 39% of the vote, still a record low for a two-person election.

No, in 1966 Reagan was just a promise, nothing more.

So the answer of "Who’s Reagan Now" is not a working politician. Can’t be. But it still has to be someone with a high public profile, and a known reputation for endorsing liberal causes. It’s someone who would best represent a New Thesis, a hope rather than a reality.

So who’s Reagan now?

Surprised?

Ronald Reagan was transformed from an actor into a politician by several California billionaires, who trained him up in the way he should go.

Oprah Winfrey is her own billionaire.

Just as millions of Americans were ready, even in 1966, to march into hell supporting Reaganism, so I guarantee there are an equal number of Democrats today who would whoop and work like stink to make Oprah Winfrey the President of the United States. (Only they’d call it Oprahism, not Winfreyism.)

How crazy is it? In the movie "Back to the Future" the character played by Christopher Lloyd asks Michael J. Fox, "Who’s President in the future?" Fox answers Reagan. Snorts Lloyd, "Who’s Vice President? Jerry Lewis?"

It’s insane, really. So was the idea of President Ronald Reagan, the Greatest American of the 20th Century (according to recent  polls), in 1966.

But is it insane? Would Oprah Winfrey really be a bad President? Worse than Reagan could have seemed then? Really? She is a proven businesswoman. She knows the medium. She’s passionate about issues she cares about.

She could actually do it. Which is more than anyone was willing to say about Reagan, at this time in 1966.

So who’s next? We’ve already covered Hubert Humphrey, Nelson Rockefeller, Reagan, Bobby Kennedy. (We know who LBJ is — the lame duck Texas President who got us into a war he can’t get us out of.)

We haven’t played Eugene McCarthy yet. Remember. This is a member of the incumbent party, one who believes in the current Thesis, who is willing to extend that Thesis toward solving our current problems, and willing to take on the President in order to do it. Today he’s a relatively quiet, back-bench member of the majority, little dreaming of the long strange trip history has in store for him. (Or her. Let’s not give it away.)

Next week, on The 1966 Game.