• Location: at the dining room table
• Mood: geeky
• Music: Blondie-"The Tide Is High"

Debates in Presidential Elections: The 1980 Election

In 1976 Jimmy Carter had done well in his first set of presidential election debates with Gerald Ford. Four years later in 1980, he would have a tougher time of things. Since winning the election four years earlier, the economy had gone in the tank, with record high interest rates, coupled with high inflation, an energy crisis and low economic growth. In January 1979, shortly after Iran's leader Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi fled the country, Iranian opposition leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini ended his 14-year exile in France and returned to Iran to establish an Islamic Republic, a regime largely hostile to American interests. The taking of 52 American hostages by a group of Islamist students and militants at the U.S. embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979 was yet another problem on the President's desk. Carter's calm approach towards the crisis at first resulted in his approval ratings jump in the 60-percent range in some polls, due to a "rally round the flag" effect. But as the hostage crisis went into the New Year, Carter's inability to secure the return of the hostages made him appear weak, even within his own party. He managed to fend off a strong challenge for his party's nomination from Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy, but following his securing of his party's nomination, Carter faced a daunting challenge in his bid for re-election.



In 1980, two debates were scheduled for Presidential Candidates. Carter refused to appear in one of them. The League of Women Voters, the group which had sponsored the 1976 Ford/Carter debate series, announced in the spring of 1979 that it would do so again for the 1980 contest. Carter was not eager to participate in any debate. He had repeatedly refused to debate with Senator Kennedy during the primary season. Despite this, the League of Women Voters announced a schedule of debates similar to 1976, three presidential and one vice presidential. Carter was reluctantly willing to participate in these, that is until it was announced that third party candidate John Anderson might be invited to participate along with Carter and Reagan. This was a deal-breaker for Carter, who vehemently refused to participate in the debate if Anderson was included. Carter's Republican opponent, Ronald Reagan, refused to debate unless Anderson was on the debate stage. After months of negotiations for the League of Women Voters scheduled the first debate for September 21, 1980, in the Baltimore Convention Center.

When the debate was finally held, moderated by Bill Moyers of PBS, it was just Reagan and Anderson on stage. Carter refused to participate. Reagan later said of Carter's refusal to debate: "He knows that he couldn't win a debate even if it were held in the Rose Garden before an audience of Administration officials with the questions being asked by Jody Powell." The League of Women Voters agreed to a request from the Reagan campaign that the debate stage would feature an empty chair to represent the missing president. Carter was angered by the stunt and at the last minute the league agreed not to include it.

Many in the media underestimated Reagan's debating skills. Many pundits still opined that Anderson was the winner of the debate, but despite this, Anderson soon lost support in the polls. He was criticized form failing to challenge Reagan on social issues and on Reagan's support of side-supply economics. Anderson aimed his guns at Carter, and began by stating: "Governor Reagan is not responsible for what has happened over the last four years, nor am I. The man who should be here tonight to respond to those charges chose not to attend." Reagan took a similar approach. He said: "It's a shame now that there are only two of us here debating, because the two that are here are in more agreement than disagreement." In one notable exchange in the debate, Reagan asked Anderson about the rumor that Anderson had asked Senator Ted Kennedy to be his running mate and queried his debate opponent: "John, would you really prefer Teddy Kennedy to me?"

Carter and Reagan remained firm in their position on whether or not Anderson should be invited to the next debate. Reagan insisted that Anderson be allowed to participate, and Carter remained opposed to this. This standoff resulted in the cancellation of the proposed second debate. A debate between the vice presidential candidates was also cancelled.

In mid October, with two weeks to go in the campaign, Reagan broke the stalemate and agreed to a one-on-one debate between himself and Carter. The League of Women Voters also agreed to exclude Anderson from the final debate. It was rescheduled for October 28, just one week before election day. The debate was held in Cleveland, Ohio and was moderated by veteran ABC newsman Howard K. Smith.

The debate had one of the highest ratings of any television program in the previous decade. Over 80.6 million viewers were estimated to have watched this debate. Debate topics included the Iranian hostage crisis, and nuclear arms treaties and proliferation. Carter's strategy was to attempt to portray Reagan as a reckless "war hawk," and a "dangerous right-wing radical". But perhaps the most talked about moment from the debate was when President Carter's referred to his consultation with 12-year-old daughter Amy concerning nuclear weapons policy. It was intended to play on voters' emotions and to focus on how a nuclear war would adversely affect their children, but instead the remark became fodder for late-night television jokes. Carter said, in one answer, that he had asked Amy what the most important issue in that election was and she said, "the control of nuclear arms." The next day, a famous political cartoon, published the day after Reagan's landslide victory, showed Amy Carter sitting in Jimmy's lap with her shoulders shrugged asking "the economy? the hostage crisis?"

Another memorable moment occurred when Carter criticized Reagan's record, which included voting against Medicare and Social Security benefits. Reagan sighed audibly and said "There you go again". Reagan also criticized Carter for the growing national debt, which at the time was approaching $1 trillion. Reagan told the audience, "a billion is a thousand millions, and a trillion is a thousand billions."

In his closing remarks, Reagan asked viewers these questions:

"Are you better off now than you were four years ago? Is it easier for you to go and buy things in the stores than it was four years ago? Is there more or less unemployment in the country than there was four years ago? Is America as respected throughout the world as it was? Do you feel that our security is as safe, that we're as strong as we were four years ago? And if you answer all of those questions 'yes', why then, I think your choice is very obvious as to whom you will vote for. If you don't agree, if you don't think that this course that we've been on for the last four years is what you would like to see us follow for the next four, then I could suggest another choice that you have."



The debate was viewed as a victory for Reagan, not only by pundits, but also because of the effect it had in the pools. After trailing Carter by 8% among registered voters immediately prior to the debate, Reagan moved into a 3% lead immediately after. On election day, in the poll that mattered most, Reagan defeated Carter by almost 10% in the popular vote. Republicans also gained control of the Senate for the first time since 1952. The electoral college vote was a landslide, with 489 votes (representing 44 states) for Reagan and 49 for Carter (representing 6 states and the District of Columbia.)