In the April American Spectator, former NR publisher William Rusher argues that conservatives could and should have won the 1968 Republican presidential nomination for Ronald Reagan.

It is impossible, in any case, not to realize what the Nixon conservatives condemned America to when they made their fateful choice. In 1968 Reagan was only 57, in the prime of his life. There would have been no wage and price controls, no SALT I, no humble pilgrimage to Beijing, no Watergate, no threat of impeachment, no presidential resignation. And certainly the New York Times would not have had occasion to exult editorially, as it did in February 1972(referring to Nixon), that “Seldom in Western politics… has a national leader so completely turned his back on a lifetime of beliefs to adopt those of his political opponents.”
Moreover, the consequences of supporting Nixon extended far beyond the six years it took him to turn his presidency into a disaster. . . .

Fair enough on Nixon. But would Reagan have won the general election? Would the country have been ready for him to govern as Reagan?