Even while suffering presidential defeat, the Republican Party displayed an extraordinary capacity for comeback. Only last August political obituary writers were busily anticipating the G.O.P.'s demise as an effective part of the nation's elective system. In the wake of Watergate and the divisive struggle between Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan, surveys showed that a paltry 22% of voting-age citizens were willing to identify themselves as Republicans. Ford's Silky Sullivan stretch run changed the equations even though it resulted not so much from his own strength as from Carter's weakness. But the Republicans'...
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