If you think Jimmy Carter was knocked out of Office by a primary challenger remember this ...

[ThomWV]

There were forces in play when Jimmy Carter came up for re-electioin other than that he had to face down a primary challenger.

Far too many people forget. There was 17% inflation and municipal bonds were yielding 18% or more (the absolute death of infrastructure repair or improvement). Paul Volker put a screeching throat-hold on the economy to rectify what was thought of at the time as run-away inflation and the "shared sacrifice" that ensued turned off voters to Carter in droves. And then there was the Republican Candidate, Ronald Reagan, who had secretly cut a deal with the Iranians by which they would receive military supplies (which would later be flown in by Israel at Reagan's behest) and in return they would refuse to negotiate farther with the Carter Administration. This act of treason meant that Carter stood no chance of securing the release of hostages taken at our Embassy and that was a killing blow to his Presidency. Along the same lines Carter had tried a daring military raid to free the hostages but it ended in failure with the crash of one of the helicopters (did you know we lost one hellicopter kill Bin Ladin too?) sent in to do the job. The right wing noise machine blew this story into a saga of ineptitude by the President and they used to to paint him the part of an incompetent fool.

And so the election came Reagan won in a landslide. Then began the nightmare that we are living in today. Now, someone try and convince me this was all Kennedy's fault.

[mysuzuki2]

1. do not forget the influence of the candidacy of John Anderson

[H2O Man]

3. Very important point.

Thank you.

[ThomWV]

9. I'm not so sure - even if Carter had got every one of Anderson's votes he would have lost

Carter got about 40% of the vote and Anderson took about 5 if I remember correctly. Even combined they didn't match Reagan's count.

That said I do think Anderson was incredibly powerful. His daily column was read by millions.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

21. You have John Anderson confused with Jack Anderson

Different people.

[Bucky]

29. Anderson got 6.6%. Reagan got almost 51%.

Carter reduced the budget deficit during his term in office.

[Little Star]

2. Thanks for helping us remember the facts. k&r

[taterguy]

4. Well, since Hubert Humphrey didn't run against Carter in 1980 I doubt he's at fault

But I could be wrong.

[ThomWV]

6. Please excuse my brain fart - I'll change that to Ted Kennedy right now.

[villager]

5. People forget the constant election-tampering of Republicans, and are conned into thinking the Dems

...need to keep drifting rightward.

[ChandlerJr]

7. Humphrey died in '78

Maybe you mean the Hubert Horatio Hornblower gaff.

[ThomWV]

11. I'm sorry - my BF was noted earlier and I went back and edited the post to fix it

It was Ted Kennedy who ran against Carter in the Primary in 1980. Sorry for the brain-fart.

[ChandlerJr]

15. Gotcha, but you've got to admit that the Hornblower gaff

during the 1980 convention acceptance speech was as cringe inducing as the rabbit attack.

Can you imagine if the internet and cable news existed in that day? It would have been the Howard Dean scream on steroids.

[ThomWV]

17. Now that's what I call a memory!

Wow! You, my dear friend have a remarkable memory.

[CBGLuthier]

8. Ronald Reagan was a Traitor.

[Jim Lane]

30. That assumes Reagan knew. The alternative theory is that Bill Casey was a traitor.

I don't know how much the Reagan campaign people wanted or needed to tell Reagan about what was going on.

[Major Hogwash]

10. That was over 30 years ago -- we live in a very different world now.

Completely different from an economic viewpoint.
Robert Reich was talking about this the other day on teevee.
The world's economy is intricately linked together, so when one country suffers a little bit, they pull on their neighbors, and after 3 or 4 neighbors get pulled down with them, they pull the whole chain down.

The United States didn't have 35% of its work force working overseas in 1980.

[ThomWV]

13. Are you saying that because of globalization a Primary Challenger is now more important?

I fail to see the connection between what you have explained and the effect of a primary challenge to a sitting President, which was the subject of the original post.

[Major Hogwash]

16. This isn't 1980.

That's the connection.

Jesus Christ Almighty, keep up!!

[Uncle Joe]

12. And the corporate media mis-characterizing Carter's

speech referring to it as a "malaise speech," which it wasn't, along with Nightline's; contribution to holding the nation hostage along with the actual hostages by their continuous nightly drumming and counting of days coverage day 1, day 2, day 3, day 4, day 5 etc. etc. etc.

I do believe the hostages would have been released sooner had that program not turned into the Iranian News Channel.

Thanks for the thread, ThomWV.

[Safetykitten]

14. That is the revisionist theme currently. Carter was LBJ and it was all kennedy's fault.

[mopinko]

18. i think carter was destroyed by the saudis.

his discussion of our oil dependency was the opening of pandora's box for them. they smeared him in the media in a way that we have seen perfected today. just take a look at all the obama nontroversies.

that said, if teddy and all his supporters had been fighting the right war, the good guys would have won.

[Recursion]

19. What policy of an Obama second term do you think a primary challenge would bring about?

How, specifically, would it make Obama govern differently?

[ThomWV]

25. How about we revisit Single Payer? If Obama were willing to put it all on the line for that

It would go a long way to making US goods more competitive world-wide and that alone would lead to increased employment.

How about a push from the Left to end the war and get all of those non-troops out of Iraq? You think a Primary Challenger might be able to convince him that getting out of wars is a Policy worthy of pursuing?

[Recursion]

26. And your claim is that a primary challenge would make those things happen in a second term?

It's that connection I'm missing.

[pretzel4gore]

20. the $58 billion deficit!

i can still recall the pigmedia going on and on (and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on etc) in months leading up to the Nov 1980 vote. I remember some rightwing stooge at CNN saying Carter was going to 'bankrupt america' by his spend and tax policies. Reagan gets selected (by 37 percent of less then 1/2 of total electorate!) and he began a process of running up US national debt; doubling it in one term! And where did mister pigmedia cover it? on page 35 of finacial section-if at all! if anyone has 'nexus lexus'(?) -the national newspaper database research service- they could easily document the false alarms shouted to the american people over Mr Carter's economic policies.
Face it, the US was defeated long ago. They murdered President Kennedy (btw, 'grassy knoll' is now a byword for 'foolishness' in the pigmedia) to show the american people they have no say in the running of the country. period.

[Enthusiast]

31. Nice post. And accurate.......nt

[demosincebirth]

22. Mr. Kennedy, at that time, was a contributing factor to Numbnuts being elected

[Lydia Leftcoast]

23. I was already an adult in 1980 and I barely remember Kennedy's challenge

Ted Kennedy's challenge didn't really register on the national radar. I watched the news but didn't get involved in party politics (busy finishing up graduate school). In fact, I had forgotten about Ted Kennedy's challenge until someone on DU mentioned it a few years ago.

The economy and the artificially prolonged hostage situation were the major factors.

BTW, Anderson's candidacy was a non-issue. The poster above is correct in saying that Carter's votes plus Anderson's votes still would not have equaled Reagan's votes.

Reagan 50.7%
Carter 41%
Anderson 6.6%

I remember thinking at the time, "Is the country really that stupid?"

After 30 years, my conclusion is "yes."

[dmosh42]

24. Yeah, I remember that incident all too well. I couldn't believe....

that there was no backup plan, especially since Carter was out of the Navy himself. There is always the chance of technical malfunctions on an operation of that scale. But the thing with Reagan making a deal with the Iranians is a new one on me. And yes, that operation was his downfall in his bid for re-election.

[eShirl]

27. "The right wing noise machine blew this story into a saga of ineptitude" YES

What we now call "swiftboating" DID NOT begin with the trashing of Kerry in the 2004 election.

[GeorgeGist]

28. Of course there's always the Iran hostages scam ...

I feel all fuzzy knowing Ronnie's rotting in Hell awaiting his fans.