Posts Tagged ‘Kennedy’
1980
“I couldn’t believe America had voted in a landslide for such a freak show.”
Reagan vs Carter vs Anderson
If Old Enough to Vote: Wouldn’t have voted
My Conscience: Nobody
My Conscience in the Democratic Primary: Carter. Ted Kennedy seemed cheesy to me at the time.
Impressions Heading into Election Day
Carter: I didn’t like that he boycotted the Olympics. All that training for those athletes down the tube, and for what?
Reagan: Yikes! How I imagine people to act when recovering from amnesia (theirs or mine). Also seemed to be overcompensating from some past failure or unresolved problem with a parent. For those who remember the Nixon era more than myself, y’all had been down this road, but I hadn’t.
Anderson: Somebody is going to have to explain this guy to me, if anybody remembers him. How he came from nowhere to 7% of the vote then right back to nowhere is pretty amazing. It’s hard to even find a picture of him now, but either he reminded me of Phil Donahue, or later Phil Donahue reminded me of him.
Reagan: 51% with 489 electoral
Carter: 41% with 49 electoral
Anderson: 7% with 0 electoral
Looking Back: Politics changed for me on election night as a sea of red overtook the state’s election returns. I felt guilty that I didn’t stand behind Jimmy just because of the Olympic boycott. I then decided I was a Democrat, or at least would be for a while, because I couldn’t believe America had voted in a landslide for such a freak show.
Election Map: Reagan’s election map was just about everything except Georgia, West Virginia, and a few other states.
