Jack Kemp passed away sometime in the middle of the night between Saturday, May 2 and Sunday, May 3. He had struggled with cancer for some time; the public became aware of his diagnosis in January of this year. Things must have gone downhill quickly from there.
Kemp was one of the first Republican political figures who was vivid for me. The 1988 election is the first one in which I clearly recall a lot of the candidates and their supporting casts, even in the primaries. Kemp was supposed to be the challenge from the right to George H. W. Bush, but he failed to anticipate a long-shot run by Pat Robertson, who stole the show by coming in second in the Iowa caucus behind Bob Dole (yes, Bush 41 came in third, for those who can't remember back that far...and yes, for those of you under 20, he did go on to win the general election).
Kemp then went on to serve as Bush 41's HUD Secretary, and as Bob Dole's running mate in 1996.
I came along a little too late to be able to claim memory of the Kemp-Roth tax cuts at the time they happened, but I've read my share about them over the years since. Jack Kemp was the embodiment of supply-side economics, and this doctrine, along with the candidacy of Ronald Reagan, revitalized the GOP for a generation. George Will paid Kemp the highest compliment that he could bestow on him on "This Week" today when he called him an "idea man." We need many more of them right now.
Republicans have lost another footsoldier from the Reagan Revolution. May Jack Kemp rest in peace.
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