DURING the 1988 campaign, vice’ presidential nominee Dan Quayle appeared at a North Carolina—South Carolina football game in Columbia, S.C.—the kind of autumn festival that is, in the South, part athletic contest and part cultural event. As the teams briefly suspended play in honor of the dignitary in their midst, the game announcer welcomed Quayle to the press box over the stadium sound systern. Spontaneously, 70,000 people rose to their feet to give him a standing ovation that lasted several minutes: The roar was full-throated and deafening. These southerners seemed to be saying of the man that the northern cultural elite ridiculed, “We’re for him because he shares our values.” Apparently, they were representative of their region, because nine weeks later, the Bush-Quayle ticket won every state in the South on the way to a landslide national victory.
Mr. Reed is a Republican political strategist and chairman of the Georgia Republican party.
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