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Election Could Mirror 1980 Race

RedRum Wrote: Sep 27, 2012 7:54 AM

It's amazing how much America has changed in the last 32 years - and not for the better. Though only 14, I became a Republican in 1980. Jimmy Carter was simply embarrassing to anyone who was patriotic and Reagan was inspirational, even though he was 55 years my senior. Even I remember how the polls in '80 had both candidates either tied or Carter ahead. Then, on election day, I was thrilled to watch the map turn red from east to west. Since then, the GOP has never been defeated like Carter was in '80, Mondale in '84 or even Dukakis in '88. However, since '92, enough states have gone blue to ensure no fewer than 252 electoral votes. The GOP has its work cut out this year, but it can be done - just like Reagan in '80.

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Willis6 Wrote: Sep 27, 2012 11:21 PM

Carter was (and is) totally naive and was an incompetent President. Yet I never thought for a moment that he didn't love the USA or that he was a closet Communist. I can't say that about the current President.

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Kuwull Wrote: Sep 27, 2012 8:02 AM

You're correct about those blue states, but you have to remember they are blue by less than 10 points (most of them). Just look at blue Wisconsin, right? Republican governor they recalled and he won the recall by a larger percentage in 2012 than he received in 2010, the year of the big sweep. If these "blue states" are in the bag, why is Obama spending time and money there? No one seems to be considering how many old true blue dems still love America and realize Obama hates it. A 5.1% change in those states considered safe for Oblowme turn them red.

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Election Could Mirror 1980 Race

There was only one presidential debate in 1980 between challenger Ronald Reagan and President Jimmy Carter. Just two days before the Oct. 28 debate, Carter was eight points ahead in the Gallup poll. A week after the debate, he lost to Reagan by nearly ten percentage points.

Reagan's debate quip, "There you go again," reminded voters of Carter's chronic crabbiness. Even more devastating was Reagan's final, direct question to American voters: "Are you better off than you were four years ago?" No one, it seemed, could muster a "Yes!"

Yet there was more to the 1980 campaign than the...