If You Could have Voted In The 1980 Primaries, Who Would You Have Voted For?

[Dinger]

Poll question: If You Could have Voted In The 1980 Primaries, Who Would You Have Voted For?

Saw this in an old thread, and I was just curious if the result would be similar.

Credit to DemocratSinceBirth:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x4239443

[dflprincess]

1. I supported Ted Kennedy at the caucuses

not an overly popular thing to do in Minnesota given that Walter Mondale was Carter's VP.

[DURHAM D]

14. I got clear up to the state convention as a Kennedy delegate.

Didn't get to the national convention -it was a southern state so Kennedy didn't have enough support to send any delegates up to national level.

[BeFree]

17. Ahaa!!

You two are why we got raygun? Its all your fault?!! You helped divide the party and that gave us raygun for 8 god damned years.

I forgive yall, but god damn did yall ever fuck up big time!!

[DURHAM D]

19. Well this should really piss you off -

I voted for Anderson in the general. I knew it really didn't matter because Reagan was going to win my state (and the country) big time but it made me feel good.

Carter was a dismal President. He has been a better x-President.

[BeFree]

20. ahhh

I'm over it. But that is about the only thing that Ted ever did that pissed me off. Carter was the best pres ever except that the conservadems and the libs screwed him over and gave us raygun the worst president ever after bush2.

[dflprincess]

18. I did too!

He did get a few national delegates out of Minnesota - but I didn't get to be one of them.

[HuckleB]

2. Alas, the economy was beyond any president's control.

Thus, it didn't matter which Democrat was on the ballot. What still make me laugh is that Carter actually wanted to cut waste, while Reagan just talked about it.

[bigwillq]

3. I was 2.

So can't really say. However, I did vote for Carter in this poll. I like to vote. I liked what Kennedy became when I first realized who he "was". He was a great Senator from the time that I can remember. Not so sure what kind of president he would've been. That's a much different beast.

[baldguy]

4. If I recall correctly, I voted for Kennedy.

[Stinky The Clown]

5. I would do again what I did then ...... Carter

In hindsight, it is far more difficult to decide. Both men clearly and significantly improved with age.

But that was then and I have no regrets. Kennedy was unable to tell me why he wanted to be president. Carter had already done that.

[ruggerson]

6. I voted for Kennedy

n/t

[Ozymanithrax]

7. I supported Kennedy at the time.

He would have been a good President. that is not to slight President Carter, who is one of the greatest elder statesmen this country ever had.

[napi21]

8. I DID vote in 1980 & voted for Teddy, but I was happy with Carter too.

The situation was very similar back then, like the economy, and the detest of the Prez currently in office. Teddy just couldn't get over Chappaquidic.

[Iggo]

9. I was 18 and stupid and...

...ugh. Anyone remember a fellow by the name of Reagan?

Still hurts to think about it.

[tkmorris]

24. Oh say it isn't so Iggo!

[Iggo]

35. It's so.

I had zero amounts of clue.

[Zynx]

32. Eeeewww... No problem. A lot of people made that mistake.

[hfojvt]

36. me too. I was like Alex P. Keaton, only without the tie

I console myself with the fact that he did not win by just one vote.

[Iggo]

37. Yeah, the margin was 8 and a half million nimrods...

...like me.

[cayanne]

10. I did vote

and I voted for Carter.

[David Zephyr]

11. I did vote in the 1980 primaries. For Ted.

And, then for Jimmy again in the General Election.

[dysfunctional press]

12. i voted for jimmy carter in the primary. it was the first vote i ever cast.

the second was actually for john anderson, in the general election.

i was/am from illinois, and so was he.

[graywarrior]

13. I voted for Ted.

[lapfog_1]

15. I was in college in 1976.

And I was a "liberal".

And when the Ford / Carter election came up, I remember distinctly telling all my friend to vote for Ford, because a vote for Carter would be a vote for Reagan in 1980.

They all laughed and laughed at me... "Reagan... who in their right mind would vote for that Bircher???" hahahahaha.

In 1981, I called every one of those assholes up on the phone and asked them "well, who is President? Who?"

Didn't make me feel even one little bit better.

Yes, the Dems should have nominated Kennedy, even though he was late to the game and it was halfhearted.

But it was doomed to failure. Just like the potential upcoming Dean run against Obama in the 2012 primary.

[Renew Deal]

16. Fred Flintstone

Or Big Bird, or maybe George Jetson. I was young and impressionable. :)

[doc03]

21. I sorry I voted for Ronald Reagan n/t

[GreenPartyVoter]

23. Were you a Reagan Democrat, a Repub, or something else?

[doc03]

28. I voted for Jimmy Carter in 1976, we had record inflation,

gas lines and the hostage situation. I fell for Ronald Reagan's bull shit hook line and sinker. I guess I was a Reagan Democrat. I also supported Ross Perot because of NAFTA and that giant sucking sound but didn't vote for him after his campaign imploded, I figured it would be as wasted vote. I think Ross Perot has been proven right on the giant sucking sound. I liked John McCain back in 2000 when he was a real maverick and switched parties to vote for him in the primaries. So really RR was the only Republican I ever voted for in the Presidentail election.

[GreenPartyVoter]

29. Yeah, I cross party lines a lot. I am now regretting my past votes for Olympia Snowe, though.

x(

[tritsofme]

22. I supported Carter, and was bitter at Ted Kennedy for many years.

Reagan cut campaign ads of Kennedy's scathing criticism of a sitting Democratic president. I thought it was despicable.

[GreenPartyVoter]

30. Could we wind up there again if there is effectively a schism over whether ot not to

primary Obama??

[jwirr]

25. I did vote for Jimmy Carter and it had little to do with politics. Many of

us were deathly afraid that if Edward Kennedy were even close to winning the presidency someone would assassinate him. We wanted him to use his power in Congress.

[BlueIdaho]

26. Ted Ken... no wait I did vote for Teddy in the primaries!

Damn I've been a Democrat for a loooooong time.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

27. I was old enough, but I was living temporarily in New York while legally

resident in Connecticut. In addition, I was rather detached from politics.

By the time the General came along, I was back in Connecticut and voted for Carter.

[WT Fuheck]

31. of those two, Kennedy.

But in the real 1980 primary, I voted for Jerry Brown.

[proteus_lives]

33. Carter all the way.

Teddy would have gone down in flames in the title fight.

[Sapphocrat]

34. "If you could have"...?

Your generation gap is showing. Some of us were already adults in 1980, you know.

And, for the record, I voted for Kennedy in the primary, sighed, then voted for Carter in the general.

[Ildem09]

38. Hell I want Teddy in 2012

A Man can dream can't I?

[upi402]

39. I felt Carter was getting hosed and was on my way to vote for him

when I heard Raygun had already won.
I missed the primaries and don't really know who I would've supported. I had no idea how that election would ruin the country until the following year.

[Rhythm]

40. I was 14 then, but it was in that time period that i started to become politically aware

Beginning in '79, i really began to pay attention to the news and to politics.

Even then, i was flabbergasted that my parents were as xenophobic and conservative as they were.

[Contrary1]

41. I voted for Carter for selfish reasons...

I feared a Kennedy assassination trifecta. And, while I didn't know how Carter would do, I sensed that he was a decent man. I wasn't wrong. He was decent; far too decent a human being to be president.