1980 was the first Presidential election I was old enough to vote in. While I remember some polls showing a close race, I believe optimism about a Carter win was pretty muted. For one, here in my State of California Ted Kennedy had won the Democratic primary. Rep Anderson was siphoning more votes from Carter than he was his fellow Republican Reagan. There was little doubt that Reagan would win this State.
The media wasn’t so much surprised by the Reagan win as they were by the takeover of the Senate by the GOP.
Always in the background was the Iranian hostage crisis and Carters ‘Rose Garden’ strategy - seen by most as simply ‘ducking.’
The incumbent ducking questions from the media about foreign policy issues is the strongest resemblance between 1980 and now.
Hmmm... Your memory seems a little hindsighted to me.
It certainly wasn’t what the media was saying.
Then again, many people are predicting a smashing win for Romney Tuesday.
Perhaps in later years you’ll say you were one of them....