(AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE) -- Conservatives have long been looking for the next Ronald Reagan, when they ought to be looking for the next Jack Kemp, Reagan’s role model. Amid the malaise of the ’70s, Kemp devised a supply-side economic strategy that inspired a president and a generation.
He was arguably the greatest 20th-century Republican president America never had. Kemp, who died in 2009, first came to public attention as a quarterback for the San Diego Chargers and Buffalo Bills. In 1971, he entered elected office as a Republican congressman from the Buffalo area, and after a failed presidential bid in 1988 he served as secretary of Housing and Urban Development under George H.W. Bush. In 1996, he was Bob Dole’s vice presidential running mate.
