HISTORY: If Ted Kennedy beats Carter in the 80' primary does he win...

[CalebHayes]

the presidency against Regan? Would it have been close? I wouldn't be born until ten years later so I wouldn't know. I was just reading a little bit about that election and I wanted to know what it was really like? Could Jesus have beaten Regan?

[DemocratSinceBirth]

1. No ....

Chappaquidick doomed his presidential ambitions though I was a fervent Kennedy supporter at the time....

[CalebHayes]

4. I know at times he was doing very well in polling though...

Did people just need to be reminded of the incident?

[DemocratSinceBirth]

8. The Incident Was Relatively Fresh...

It was only eleven years old...


And the media picked at the scab...Readers Digest did a piece casting doubt on Ted Kennedy's version of the accident...


It's really quite sad for the Kennedys as well as the Kopechnes.....

[hedgehog]

21. I was for Ted then myself but felt in my heart of hearts he had no

chance because of Chappaquiddick. It was very frustrating because I loved his message but knew that the message bearer was fatally flawed. If he'd gotten the nomination we would have drowned in the mud.

[Warpy]

11. The religious wack jobs weren't quite as well organized in 1980

and that might have made a huge difference. Undoubtedly Reagan's hired thugs would have shrieked "murderer!" at Kennedy, but it was a different time and I think most people would have been turned off by it. The country hadn't yet sunk completely into ignorance and hate, and the media had not all been monopolized by six anti American corporations.

It's hard to secondguess this stuff. Carter lost a lot of people because he'd done the tough things the Fed had requested in order to stop the runaway inflation caused by the oil shocks. He lost more because of his perceived wimpiness in Washington, his deseire to please as many people as possible. He lost feminists because he sold poor women out on choice.

Kennedy might have won on the strength of his name and because he was neither Carter nor Reagan.

It's really hard to speculate on this stuff, though.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

13. Actually Carter Played The Chappaquidick Card

All is fair in politics and war I guess.....


In retrospect I can see how Carter was pissed to get a primary challenge....


In fact I don't think any incumbent president who got a serious primary challenge has went on to be reelected...


You must be vulnerable to get a challenge from your own party...

I can remember handing out Kennedy flyers in Daytona Beach Florida for Ted... My mom caucused for him....

[KissMeKate]

2. Reagan was an actor helped by a left weary media.

He took a few good pictures, blamed black welfare mothers for all of our ills, and got some good press.

I think Ted kennedy's chances were doomed by Chappaquidick.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

5. Without Chappaquidick A Ted Kennedy Presidency Is Conceivable...

It seems the presidential aspirations of the entire Kennedy family died on that night...

[KissMeKate]

30. yes. too bad bush's drunk driving

didnt have the same effect on the bush family.

[LosinIt]

3. Nope, dirty tricks out in force.

Elvis couldn't have beat Reagan.

[David Zephyr]

6. I voted for Ted against Carter here in California.

And voted for Carter in the General election.

John Anderson is what hurt Carter, not Kennedy's primary run.

Also, the orchestrated "oil shortage" by big petroleum upset with Carter for his "windfall profits taxation" against them really hurt.

And, then George H. Bush's secret meeting in Paris with Iranian officials striking the deal that Reagan would sell arms to them if they'd hold the hostages until after the election really did the trick. And guess what, Iran release the hostages as Reagan was being sworn into office and within sixty days Ollie North was delivering arms to Iran.

[hedgehog]

22. John Anderson didn't hurt Carter, Carter hurt Carter

After such a great inauguration day with the walk down Pennsylvania Avenue it was a disappointment to see Carter cave to the "experts" time after time after time. He tried to pull US support away from right wing death squads but allowed himself to be oput down as too naive to run the country.

[boneygrey]

7. I doubt it

Carter had the bad luck of running for election when the economy wasn't doing well, oil and gas prices were high, and Iran took many American's hostage. Kinda like the perfect storm at election time. I don't think Kennedy would have faired any better.:shrug:

BTW, its spelled Reagan.

[dogman]

9. Not close.

Reagan had been selling to the American public for years. Just like now the Christian right was terrified of a practicing Christian. Money was the new God.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

10. It Would Have Been Difficult Because Kennedy Was Hobbled By Chappaquidick.

Sans Chappaquidick it's a race...

[TwentyFive]

12. Yes - Ted Kennedy would have won and been a great President

I think 1980 was the most tragic election. I see it as a big fork in the road, and with the election of Reagan, we took the dark side. If Kennedy had won, our country would have been so much better off.

Carter was a rebound from the Nixon scandals. People wanted a simple, honest guy in the office. Problem was, Carter could not inspire people the way a Clinton or Reagan could. He brought out pessimism in people. Reagan was about optimism, and that won him the election.

[NNadir]

14. Kennedy would not have won. It's probably a good thing he wasn't

nominated.

Like his brothers, he's pretty creepy.

I have never voted Republican, and I wouldn't have done so had the nominee been Kennedy in 1980, but it would be an awful painful bit, to vote for Kennedy.

The Kennedy's, particulary the dead Kennedy's, get all kinds of byes and good press, but the thing I'll always remember about Bobby is that he named Joseph McCarthy has his oldest son's godfather. What I'll always remember about John, besides his being the only democratic senator NOT to vote to censure McCarthy, is how he almost caused to the entire planet to be incinerated because he was too busy fucking to pay attention to business during the 1961 summit with Khruschev.

Khruschev thought Kennedy a real lightweight, and you know what? Khruschev was right about that, if nothing else.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

17. I Hope I I Am Not Judged By My Worst Actions...

I prefer to remember the RFK who after visiting Appalachia and witnessing the abject despair of its residents went back to his Hickory Hill estate and lecturing his children about how fortunate they were and how they had an obligation to help those who weren't similarly blessed...

I prefer to remember the RFK that addressed a largely African American crowd on the eve of Dr. King's assassination and reminded them that his brother too was killed by a white man and what America needs is love not hate...


I prefer to remember JFK as the hero of PT109 and the president who started the Peace Corp, the Alliance For Progress and planted the seeds for the programs that would become the Great Society...


God bless John and Bobby...May they rest in peace..

[hedgehog]

20. Bobby quietly left McCarthy's staff to work for the opposition but

he wouldn't deny a friend. For someone accused of being ruthless, he showed a lot of mercy.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

23. It Didn't Hurt That Joe McCarthy Dated One Of Their Sisters..

And anybody who has read about RFK's work on that committee knows he was a brake on the excesses which won him the eternal enmity of fellow committee member Roy Cohn...


Toward the end of his life RFK was the closest thing to a conviction politician on the left that had a reasonable chance of becoming president...

[hedgehog]

26. Both John and Bobby learned as they went through life

The worst thing about their murders is that their best days were ahead. When they made mistakes, they recognized it and fixed them instead of bulling full speed ahead down the wrong track.

[Wapsie B]

15. Maybe.

But then he befalls the fate of his two brothers.

[MrSlayer]

16. So much of Ted's good work is sullied by Chappaquidick.

No, I don't think he would have won.

[bobweaver]

18. He gave such a great speech at the 1980 D convention!

[DemocratSinceBirth]

19. Somewhere I Have An Autographed Copy Of That Speech...

eom

[tritsofme]

24. I'll never forgive Ted for the 1980 primary challenge

Time has eased my opinion, but for many years I held Ted Kennedy responsible for Ronald Reagan.

I just felt so betrayed when he challenged Carter, especially because of the way I idolized Bobby and John when I was young.

I loved Carter and his loss was a big shock to me.

And I'll never forget seeing commercials similar to this one:

http://livingroomcandidate.movingimage.us/player/asx.php?media_id=6959

And that really made me sick to my stomach, and still does in many ways.

Although as many on this thread have said, Chappaquiddick made Ted radioactive.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

25. Respectfully The Hostage Crisis, Inflation, And High Gas Prices

Made Carter Toast....


Also, the reason Kennedy ran against Carter is because he felt that Carter was a DINO....

If you read this board the past is now the future...

[tritsofme]

27. Now I am able to see that

But back then Kennedy served as a more than ample scapegoat.

[DrGonzoLives]

28. Chappaquidick

No chance in hell he beats Reagan.

Besides, the 1980 election was closer than it looks. Without the October Surprise, Carter probably wins that election. At the time, most people didn't buy into Reagan's voodoo economics, they abandoned Carter more because of the Iranian hostage situation (and the failed attempts to rescue the hostages).

[hedgehog]

29. Carter cut the Shah loose because he was a dictator like Sadaam

then he let him into the US. That's what triggered the hostage crisis.

[LSdemocrat]

31. Why the hell didn't Ted Kennedy run in 1976?

Anyone would have clobbered Ford in 1976.

[raysr]

32. There was a show

on FSTV a couple of days ago outlineling in detail how the Bush-Reagan campain delayed the Iran hostage realese until after the election. No, the fix was in, nobody could have beat Reagan.

[tritsofme]

33. Because Chappaquiddick was only 6 years behind him

and it was still a hot issue in 1980 when he challenged in the primary.

1976 was still a very close election between Carter and Ford, and Ford was far from clobbered.

[TankLV]

34. No - because he didn't and this is pointless.

No one will ever know.

I'm more interested in how come a repuke can start out as a rather good looking woman then become such a god-awful ugly hag like Babs bush?

Ewwwwwwwwww!