That was in January 1980. That was like the Reagan-Mondale early 1983 poll situation in reverse, because the economy was starting to rapidly deteriorate in early 1980. Also the disaster of the failed attempt to free the Iranian hostages hadn’t happened yet. They were still in captivity on election day 1980.
It was in January yes. But Carter was leading by a massive 23 points in that poll.
No one comes back from such a deep hole in just 10 months let alone win in a landslide of 44 to 6 states.
The polls have been left wing agenda driven political tools since there were polls.
I read one of the books on Reagan (not sure which since I’ve read quite a few of them) in which Newsweek deliberately made up a fake poll against Reagan and the then editor boasted about it to Reagan/Reagan campaign after Reagan had won. He was not the least bit contrite.
The Iranian hostages had already been taken in January 1980, no? They were held for 444 days if I remember correctly.