WikiPortallus: U.S. presidential election, 1980.html

Carter, after defeating Ted Kennedy for the Democratic nomination, attacked Reagan as a dangerous right-wing radical. For his part, Reagan, the charismatic former Governor of California, repeatedly ridiculed Carter, and won a decisive victory; in the simultaneous Congressional elections, Republicans won control of the United States Senate for the first time in 28 years. This win was a re-aligning election and marked the beginning of the "Reagan Revolution."¹

Background

Through the 1970s, the United States underwent a wrenching period of low economic growth, high inflation and interest rates and intermittent energy crises. Added to this was a sense of malaise that in both foreign and domestic affairs, the nation was headed downward. By the beginning of the election season, the prolonged Iran hostage crisis had sharpened public perceptions of a national crisis.²¹

Similar^{citation needed} to how Herbert Hoover had been blamed for the Great Depression in 1932, Jimmy Carter was blamed for most of the nation's woes, especially the Iran hostage crisis, in which the followers of the Ayatollah Khomeni publicly humiliated the US by burning American flags and chanting anti-American slogans, parading the captured American hostages in public, and burning effigies of President Carter. Many Americans saw Carter as an inept leader who had failed to solve the worsening economic problems at home, and had made the US look weak abroad.¹

Nominations

Democratic Party nomination

Candidates gallery

In the spring and summer of 1980, unemployment was high, inflation was on the rise, and in California, the gasoline supply was running out. The gas lines last seen just after the Arab/Israeli war of 1973 were back, and President Carter was widely blamed.^{citation needed}

The President’s approval ratings were very low -- 28% according to Gallup,³ with some other polls giving even lower numbers. In July Carter returned from Camp David to reshuffle his cabinet and give a televised address to the nation widely dubbed the "malaise" speech, though the word malaise was never used.⁴ While the speech caused a brief upswing in the president's approval rating, the decision to dismiss several cabinet members was widely seen as a rash act of desperation, causing his approval rating to plummet back into the twenties. Some Democrats felt it worth the risk to mount a challenge to Carter in the primaries. Although Hugh Carey and William Proxmire decided not to run, Senator Edward Kennedy finally made his long-expected run at the Presidency.

Ted Kennedy had been asked to take his brother's place at the 1968 Democratic Convention and had refused. He ran for Senate Majority Whip in 1969, however, and many thought that he was going to use that as a platform for 1972.⁵ But then came the notorious Chappaquiddick incident.

Many suspected that Chappaquiddick had destroyed any ability he had to win on a national level. However, in the summer of 1979, he consulted with his family, and that fall, he let it leak out that because of Carter’s failings, 1980 might indeed be the year. Gallup had him beating the president by over two to one.

Kennedy’s official announcement was scheduled for early November. It took place in a prime time interview with CBS’s Roger Mudd and it was a minor disaster. Kennedy flubbed a number of the questions and couldn’t exactly explain why he was running, and the polls, which showed him leading the President by 58–25 in August now had him ahead 49–39.⁶ Then the hostages were kidnapped in Tehran, Iran and the bottom fell out of the Kennedy campaign.

Carter’s approval ratings jumped to the 60% range in some polls, due to a "rally ‘round the flag" effect⁷ and an appreciation of Carter's calm handling of the crisis.^{citation needed} Kennedy was suddenly left far behind. Carter beat Kennedy soundly in Iowa and New Hampshire. Carter decisively defeated Kennedy everywhere except Massachusetts, until impatience began to build with the President’s strategy on Iran. When the later primaries in New York, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut came around, it was Kennedy who won largely due to such impatience.

A television ad from the Jerry Brown campaign that aired in Wisconsin showed an image of the California governor with parts of the picture marred by splotches of empty space due to a technical problem, giving the appearance of holes in the candidate's head. Brown had publicly stated that he needed a win in the Wisconsin primary to stay in the campaign; he dropped out when he lost.

Carter was still able to maintain a substantial lead even after Kennedy swept the last batch of primaries in June. Despite this, Kennedy refused to drop out, and the 1980 Democratic National Convention was one of the nastiest on record. On the penultimate day, Kennedy conceded the nomination and called for a more liberal party platform in what many saw as the best speech of his career.^{citation needed} On the platform on the final day, Kennedy for the most part ignored Carter.

In the vice presidential roll call, Mondale was re-nominated with 2,428.7 votes to 723.3 not voting and 179 scattering.

In his nomination acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention at Madison Square Garden, Carter recalled deceased Democratic leaders and referred to Hubert Humphrey, whose middle name was Horatio, as "Hubert Horatio Hornblower." He quickly corrected himself. After Carter's speech, a flood of balloons was supposed to drop. However, the overhead machine experienced difficulty and the balloons could not drop. After a significant wait they began to drop, but then at a very slow pace. This was considered a bad omen on the fall campaign. Similar malfunctions occurred during the 1996 Republican National Convention following nominee Bob Dole's speech and the 2004 Democratic Convention following nominee John Kerry's speech. In 2004, TV microphones picked up the voice of Don Mischer, the director and producer of the convention, who (perhaps remembering 1980) uttered several profanities regarding his displeasure at the malfunction.⁹

Republican Party nomination

As the 1970s came to a close, Former Governor Ronald Reagan was the odds-on favorite to win his party's nomination for president (after nearly beating incumbent President Gerald Ford just four years earlier). He was so far ahead in the polls that campaign director John Sears decided on an "above the fray" strategy. He did not attend many of the multicandidate forums and straw poll events held in the summer and fall of 1979.

In January 1980, the Iowa Republicans decided to have a straw poll as a part of their caucuses for that year. Bush's hard work paid off, and he defeated Reagan by a small margin. Bush declared he had the "Big Mo" (for "momentum"), and with Reagan boycotting the Puerto Rico primary in deference to New Hampshire, the victorious Bush looked as if he might actually beat Reagan to the nomination.

With the other candidates in single digits, the Nashua Telegraph offered to host a debate between Reagan and Bush. After allegations by Senator Bob Dole that a newspaper-sponsored debate between only two of the Republican candidates might violate electoral regulations,¹⁰ Reagan subsequently arranged to fund the event with his own campaign money, inviting the other candidates to participate at short notice. The Bush camp did not learn of Reagan's decision to include the other candidates until the debate was due to commence. Bush refused to participate, which led to an impasse on the stage. As Reagan attempted to explain his decision, the editor of the Nashua Telegraph ordered the sound operator to mute Reagan's microphone. A visibly angry Reagan responded, quoting the Frank Capra film State of the Union,¹¹ "I am paying for this microphone, Mr. Green!" (the editor's name was in fact Jon Breen).¹²¹³ Eventually the other candidates agreed to leave, and the debate proceeded between Reagan and Bush. Reagan's quote was often repeated as "I paid for this microphone!" and dominated news coverage of the event; Bush did not make an impact with the voters. Reagan swept the South and, although he lost five more primaries to Bush, had a lock on the nomination very early in the season. Reagan would always be grateful to the people of Iowa for giving him "the kick in the pants" he needed.^{citation needed}

Reagan was an adherent of supply side economics, which argues that economic growth can be most effectively created using incentives for people to produce (supply) goods and services, such as adjusting income tax and capital gains tax rates. Accordingly, Reagan promised an economic revival that would affect all sectors of the population. He said that cutting tax rates would actually increase tax revenues because the lower rates would cause people to work harder as they would be able to keep more of their money. Reagan also called for a drastic cut in "big government" programs and pledged to deliver a balanced budget for the first time since 1969. In the primaries, Bush famously called Reagan's economic policy "voodoo economics" because it promised to lower taxes and increase revenues at the same time.

Reagan initially negotiated with Gerald Ford that he be Reagan's running mate; when the complex plan fell through (Ford reportedly insisted Henry Kissinger and Alan Greenspan be offered cabinet positions), Reagan chose Bush as the Republican vice-presidential candidate.

After Ronald Reagan and George Bush were officially nominated, the two running mates held a joint press conference in which the microphones kept malfunctioning. Recalling Reagan's memorable line from the New Hampshire primary campaign, a reporter asked Reagan, "Governor, who paid for these microphones?" The press and the candidates greeted the question with laughter.

During his acceptance speech at the Republican convention in Detroit, Michigan, Reagan said he would strive to work for "family, work, neighborhood, peace, and freedom."¹⁴ Time Magazine reported that the speech drew bipartisan praise.¹⁵ The magazine wrote of the speech:¹⁵

Other candidates

John Anderson

John Bayard Anderson, after being defeated in the Republican primaries, entered the general election as an independent candidate because of his opposition to the more conservative policies of Reagan.^{citation needed} His support levels in the polls fell every week as his former supporters were pulled away by Carter, who was more liberal, or Reagan, who was more conservative. His running mate was Patrick Lucey, former Governor of state of Wisconsin and then Ambassador to Mexico, appointed by President Carter.

Ed Clark

The Libertarian Party nominated Edward Clark for President and David H. Koch for Vice President; they received more than one million votes and were on the ballot in all 50 states.

Clark published a book on his programs, entitled "A New Beginning". The book's introduction was by Eugene McCarthy. During the campaign, Clark positioned himself as a peace candidate and tailored his appeal to liberals and progressives unhappy with the resumption of Selective Service registration and the arms race with the Soviet Union. When asked in a television interview to summarize libertarianism, Clark used the phrase "low-tax liberalism," causing some consternation among traditional libertarian theorists, most notably economist Murray Rothbard.

Ed Clark's running mate in 1980 was David H. Koch of Koch Industries, who pledged part of his personal fortune to the campaign in exchange for the Vice-Presidential nomination.

Clark received 921,128 votes (1.06% of the total nationwide);¹⁶ this was the highest number and percentage of popular votes a Libertarian Party candidate has ever received in a presidential race. His strongest support was in Alaska, where he came in third place with 11.66% of the vote, finishing ahead of independent candidate John Anderson and receiving almost half as many votes as Jimmy Carter.

Minor candidates

Rock star Joe Walsh ran a mock campaign as a write-in candidate, promising to make his song "Life's Been Good" the new national anthem if he won, and running on a platform of "Free Gas For Everyone." Though Walsh was not old enough to actually assume the office, he wanted to raise public awareness of the election. (In 1992, Walsh recorded a song called "Vote For Me," in which he declared his candidacy for vice-president.)

General election

Campaign

Under federal election laws, Carter and Reagan received $29.4 million each, and Anderson was given a limit of $18.5 million with private fund-raising allowed for him only. They were not allowed to spend any other money. Carter and Reagan each spent about $15 million on television advertising, and Anderson under $2 million. Reagan ended up spending $29.2 million in total, Carter $29.4 million, and Anderson spent $17.6 million— partially because he didn't get FEC money until after the election.

The 1980 election is considered by some to be a realigning election. Reagan's supporters praise him for running a campaign of upbeat optimism.¹⁷ Carter emphasized his record as a peacemaker, and said Reagan's election would threaten civil rights and social programs that stretched back to the New Deal. Reagan's platform also emphasized the importance of peace, as well as a prepared self-defense.¹⁷

Immediately after the conclusion of the primaries, a Gallup poll held that Reagan was ahead, with 58% of voters upset by Carter's handling of the Presidency.¹⁷ The campaign was largely negative, with many voters disliking Carter's handling of the economy, but also perceiving Reagan as an intellectual lightweight, possibly unable to handle the presidency and with various questionable policies.^{citation needed} One analysis of the election has suggested that "Both Carter and Reagan were perceived negatively by a majority of the electorate."¹⁸ While the three leading candidates (Reagan, Anderson and Carter) were religious Christians, Carter had the most support of evangelical Christians according to a Gallup poll.¹⁷ However, in the end, Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority lobbying group is credited with giving Reagan two-thirds of the white evangelical vote.¹⁹

The election of 1980 was a key turning point in American politics. It signaled the new electoral power of the suburbs and the Sun Belt. Reagan's success as a conservative would initiate a realigning of the parties, as liberal Republicans and conservative Democrats would either leave politics or change party affiliations through the 1980s and 1990s to leave the parties much more ideologically polarized.¹

Campaign promises

Reagan promised a restoration of the nation's military strength. Reagan also promised an end to "'trust me' government" and to restore economic health by implementing a supply-side economic policy. Reagan promised a balanced budget within three years (which he said would be "the beginning of the end of inflation"), accompanied by a 30% reduction in taxes over those same years. With respect to the economy, Reagan famously said, "A recession is when your neighbor loses his job. A depression is when you lose yours. And recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his."¹⁷ Reagan also criticized the "Windfall Profit Tax" that Carter and Congress enacted that year in regards to domestic oil production and promised to attempt to repeal it as president.²⁰ The tax was not a tax on profits, but on the difference between the price control-mandated price and the market price.²¹

Reagan also announced his intention if elected to appoint the first female justice to the Supreme Court,²² as well as a plan to work with all 50 state governors to combat discrimination against women.¹⁷

Carter was criticized by his own aides for not having a "grand plan"; he often criticized Reagan's economic plan, but did not create one of his own in response.¹⁷

Campaign events

In August, after the Republican National Convention, Ronald Reagan gave a campaign speech at an annual county fair on the outskirts of Philadelphia, Mississippi, where three civil rights workers were murdered in 1964. Reagan famously announced, "Programs like education and others should be turned back to the states and local communities with the tax sources to fund them. I believe in states’ rights. I believe in people doing as much as they can at the community level and the private level."¹⁷ Reagan also stated, "I believe we have distorted the balance of our government today by giving powers that were never intended to be given in the Constitution to that federal establishment." He went on to promise to "restore to states and local governments the power that properly belongs to them."²³ President Carter attacked Reagan for injecting "hate and racism" by the "rebirth of code words like 'states' rights'".²⁴

Two days later, Reagan appeared at the Urban League convention in New York, where he said, "I am committed to the protection and enforcement of the civil rights of black Americans. This commitment is interwoven into every phase of the plans I will propose."¹⁷ He than said that he would develop "enterprise zones" to help with urban renewal.¹⁷

Reagan was hurt by a series of gaffes during the campaign.^{citation needed} When Carter appeared in a small Alabama town, Tuscumbia, Alabama, Reagan incorrectly claimed the town had been the birthplace of the Ku Klux Klan— it was actually the home of the KKK's national headquarters.¹⁷ Reagan was widely ridiculed by Democrats for saying that trees caused pollution; he later said that he meant only certain types of pollution and his remarks had been misquoted. Recently science has confirmed that trees do indeed produce hydrocarbon pollutants.

"The world's trees, shrubs and other plants do produce massive amounts of hydrocarbons - nine times as much as do automobiles, by some counts.

Those gases, most notably isoprene, are major ingredients of ozone, a lung irritant linked to asthma and other serious respiratory ailments."²⁵

But if Reagan's remarks hurt his candidacy, Carter was burdened by a continued weak economy and the Iran hostage crisis. Inflation, high interest rates, and unemployment continued through the course of the campaign, and the ongoing hostage crisis in Iran became, to many, a symbol of American impotence during the Carter years. John Anderson's independent candidacy, aimed at liberals, was also seen as hurting Carter more than Reagan,¹⁷ especially in such Democratic states as Massachusetts and New York.

The debates

The most important event of the entire 1980 presidential campaign was the second presidential debate, which was held one week to the day before the election (October 28). Over the course of two hours, the entire race changed drastically, and what was considered an extremely tight race with the President slightly ahead became a comfortable Republican victory for Reagan. Nothing of that magnitude has happened since in any televised confrontations.

The League of Women Voters, which had sponsored the 1976 Ford/Carter series, announced that it would do so again for the next cycle in the spring of 1979. However, Carter was not eager to participate. He had repeatedly refused to debate Sen. Edward M. Kennedy during the primary season, and had given ambivalent signals as to his participation in the fall.

The LWV had announced a schedule of debates similar to 1976, three presidential and one vice presidential. No one had much of a problem with this until it was announced that Rep. John Anderson might be invited to participate along with Carter and Reagan. Carter steadfastly refused to participate with Anderson included, and Reagan refused to debate without him.

The first debate took place in Baltimore, Maryland on September 21. President Carter was nowhere to be found. Moderated by Bill Moyers, the confrontation between Anderson and Reagan was considered a dud.^{citation needed} Anderson, who many thought would handily dispatch the former Governor, could according to many in the media manage only a draw. Anderson, who had been as high as 20% in some polls and at the time of the debate was over ten, dropped to about five soon after. Still, with President Carter boycotting, the whole thing seemed meaningless and ratings were low.^{citation needed}

As September turned into October, the situation remained essentially the same. Gov. Reagan demanded Anderson in and President Carter demanded him out. As the standoff continued, the second round was canceled, as was the vice presidential debate.

With two weeks to go to the election, the Reagan campaign decided that the best thing to do at that moment was to accede to all of President Carter's demands, and LWV agreed to disinvite Congressman Anderson from the remaining debate, which was rescheduled for October 28 in Cleveland, Ohio.

Moderated by Howard K. Smith and presented by the League of Women Voters, the presidential debate between President Carter and Governor Reagan ranked among the highest ratings of any television show in the previous decade. Debate topics included the Iranian hostage crisis, and nuclear arms treaties and proliferation. Carter's campaign sought to portray Gov. Reagan as a reckless "hawk." Gov. Reagan would have none of it, and it came as no surprise, then, when the candidates repeatedly clashed over the nuclear weapons issue in their debate. But it was President Carter's reference to his consultation with 12-year-old daughter Amy concerning nuclear weapons policy that became the focus of post-debate analysis and fodder for late-night television jokes. President Carter said he had asked Amy what the most important issue in that election was and she said, "the control of nuclear arms".

Gov. Reagan's demeanor, on the other hand, was sunny and tolerant. When President Carter made a reference to what he saw as the governor's record, voting against Medicare and Social Security benefits, Gov. Reagan replied with a cheerful "There you go again."²⁶

In his closing remarks, Gov. Reagan asked a simple yet devastating question that would resonate with voters in 1980 and beyond: "Are you better off now than you were four years ago?" According to President Carter's Press Secretary Jody Powell's memoirs, internal tracking polls showed the President's tiny lead turning into a major Reagan landslide over the final weekend.

Results

The election was held on November 4, 1980. Ronald Reagan with running mate George H.W. Bush beat Carter by almost 10 percentage points in the popular vote. Republicans also gained control of the Senate for the first time in twenty-five years on Reagan's coattails. The electoral college vote was a landslide, with 489 votes (representing 44 states) for Reagan and 49 votes for Carter (representing 6 states and the District of Columbia). NBC News projected Reagan as the winner at 8:15 pm EST (5:15 PST), before voting was finished in the West, based on exit polls. (It was the first time a broadcast network used exit polling to project a winner, and took the other broadcast networks by surprise.) Carter conceded defeat at 9:50 pm EST.²⁷²⁸ Carter's loss was the worst defeat for an incumbent President since Herbert Hoover lost to Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932 by a margin of 18%. John B. Anderson won no electoral votes, but got 5,720,060 popular votes. His 6.6% share of the popular vote total was the best by a third party or independent since 1968, and would not be bettered again until Ross Perot won 19% in 1992. Also, Jimmy Carter is the first incumbent Democrat to serve only 1 full term and fail to secure re-election since Andrew Johnson (Grover Cleveland served 2 non-consecutive terms while Harry Truman and Lyndon Johnson served 1 full term in addition to taking over after the deaths of Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy respectively).

Libertarian Party candidate Ed Clark received 921,299 popular votes (1.1%). The Libertarians succeeded in getting Clark on the ballot in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Clark's best showing was in Alaska, where he received 12% of the vote. As of 2008, this is the best performance by a Libertarian presidential candidate.

Statistics

Close states

Voter demographics

Source: CBS News/ New York Times interviews with 12,782 voters as they left the polls, as reported in the New York Times, November 9, 1980, p. 28, and in further analysis. The 1976 data are from CBS News interviews.

U.S. presidential election, 1980.html

Contents