Jimmy Carter Blame Loss to Reagan on Third Party Candidate

[Grim17]

Jimmy Carter in an interview with Chris Matthews on MSNBC, made the bogus claim that he lost the 1980 election to Ronald Reagan because of Independent presidential candidate John B. Anderson. He said, and I quote:

"Ronald Reagan only got less than 51% of the votes, but he won because of a 3rd party candidate."

He went on to say, in their discussion of what might happen if Bloomberg ran as an independent in 2012:

"... and what he would do is just guarantee a republican would move in the White House. And that's what happened in 1980 when Ronald Reagan moved in, because of the split democratic party."

Needless to say, Chris Matthews didn't even question Carters obviously false assertion, even though Carter's own math contradicted his claim.

Ronald Reagan won the 1980 election easily, garnishing 51.7% of the popular vote, to Carters 41.0%, and Andersons 6.6%. Even if you take Anderson out of the picture and award every single one of his votes to Carter, he still would have only managed 47.6% of the vote, more than 4% shy of what Reagan received. Just to refresh everyone's memory, Reagan won a whopping 489 electoral votes in that election, to Carters 49.

How sad is it, that even though it's 30 years later, Carter is still making excuses for why he lost that election, and the liberal media is still allowing him to get away with it?

 

[Harshaw]

As if Carter doesn't understand that the mythical "popular vote" doesn't decide the winner, anyway.

 

[Grim17]

You know, I think I should have posted this on the "Bias in the Media" thread instead of here.

 

[CaptainCourtesy]

What a ridiculous claim by Carter. He lost the 1980 campaign because his Presidency was pretty bad.

 

[Gardener]

That silly man.

It was Steve Bartman.

 

[Henrin]

Carter has been delusional for as long as he has been in the public eye. if not longer. His depth of delusion these days just appears to be getting deeper than ever before, but I still am left with the feeling its not deeper at all. In the end, Carter was a horrible president, that lost because of it. He can believe he did a great job reaching all sorts of goals of noble value if he wishes, it won't change the facts of the situation. Enough said.

His delusion is funny though, which I guess, is valuable in a comical way. If that means anything, or not.

 

[cpwill]

What a ridiculous claim by Carter. He lost the 1980 campaign because his Presidency was pretty bad.

no, he lost the 1980 campaign because his Presidency was an utter failure on every major front, and the President himself appeared to be an out-of-touch and inexperienced nut. 'pretty bad' does not begin to cover that guy.

 

[Ockham]

no, he lost the 1980 campaign because his Presidency was an utter failure on every major front, and the President himself appeared to be an out-of-touch and inexperienced nut. 'pretty bad' does not begin to cover that guy.

Well that's true - his Presidency was an abortion from the start. But the guy is trying to re-write history before he kicks the bucket. He's probably thinking --- it's been 30+ years since I was President, people have probably forgotten or wouldn't care about the specifics any more. Let's try to sway public opinion, ride on Obama's 42% approval rating and squeeze as much out of this by seeding the liberal media with these little talking points while I'm still alive. He's thinking it might just get him out of "bottom of the barrel" status in a few years or possibly, after his dies as that's when the media and public opinion are favorable to ex-Presidents. I can't blame him for trying - the guys trying to sell us that he wasn't a turd, but he was a "polished turd".

 

[soccerboy22]

Very few people can say they lost a presidential election because of a third party, and you President Carter are definitely not one of them.

 

[phattonez]

1980 Presidential Election

Carter is nuts.

 

[Ockham]

I had to look up who the 3rd party was that ran in 1980 and the only one that got above 1% of the vote was John Anderson with 6.61% of the vote. Even if all of those votes went to Carter, he still wouldn't have won, as Carter only got 41% + 6.61% wouldn't have beaten Reagans 50.75%. In fact, even if all the 3rd party votes went to Carter, he still would only get 49.24%, still short to take Reagan.

I think Carters just throwing out a red herring.

1980 Presidential General Election Results