1980: Ronald Reagan goes to Washington: the Iranian hostage crisis and economic problems at home help send a former Hollywood actor to the White House

New York Times Upfront, Feb 23, 2004 by Bernard Gwertzman

Sometimes, seemingly insignificant moments in the heat of an election campaign turn out to be a lot more significant than they appeared. Such a moment occurred in Cleveland on Sunday, Oct. 28, 1980, during the only debate between incumbent President Jimmy Carter, a Democrat, and the Republican challenger, Ronald Reagan, the former Governor of California.

'THERE YOU GO AGAIN'

Carter, who was running neck and neck with Reagan, lambasted what he said was Reagan's inconsistent record. After listening to the criticism, Reagan responded by shaking his head and saying, somewhat humorously, "There you go again," before going on to respond to Carter's charges.

Somehow that simple, unexpected quip helped lay to rest the fears of many voters that Reagan was an uptight conservative who would plunge the country into war with the Soviet Union. And after the debate--just eight days before the election--polls began to show a swing to Reagan. On Election Day, Reagan beat Carter by nearly 10 percentage points in the popular vote, and he carried 44 states and won the Electoral College in a landslide, 489 to 49, catching many political pundits and pollsters by surprise.

It is clear now, twenty four years later, that 1980 was one of the pivotal elections of the 20th century. It made conservatism respectable again and it was the first time since 1932--when Republican Herbert Hoover was defeated by Franklin D. Roosevelt--that an elected incumbent President lost his bid for a second term in office.

Historian Walter Russell Mead says that the election was a turning point in American history. "Before that, the United States had been gradually getting more liberal, really going back to the election of Theodore Roosevelt in 1904," Mead says. "Since [1980], although the trend is still rather young, it looks like the country has been becoming more conservative."

THE HOSTAGE CRISIS

The 1980 election took place against a backdrop of bad news in the U.S.: high unemployment, terrible inflation, and an energy crisis that had drivers waiting in line for hours to fill their gas tanks.

But most importantly, on Nov. 4, 1979, dozens of Americans, mostly diplomats, had been taken hostage in the American embassy in Tehran, Iran. They were seized by followers of Iran's new fundamentalist Islamic ruler, Ayatollah Khomeini, who had taken power after the fall of the Shah.

For many people, the hostage crisis epitomized a decline in America's stature in the world and Carter's inability to do anything about it. Despite continuous White House efforts--including a failed rescue mission--the hostages were not freed until Inauguration Day, minutes after Reagan took the oath of office, and 444 days after their seizure.

It is rare than an incumbent President is challenged for the nomination of his own party. But Carter was so unpopular by the summer of 1979 that Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts decided to take on the President.

Carter, however, was a dogged campaigner. In 1976, the Georgia peanut farmer and one-term Governor had seemingly come from nowhere to win the Democratic nomination and the presidency, and had little trouble defeating Kennedy in 1980. Kennedy's challenge did, however, weaken Carter for the campaign against Reagan in the fall.

UP FROM HOLLYWOOD

Reagan, who at 69 was the oldest man to run for President, was something of a phenomenon in American politics. A one-time Democrat, former sportscaster, B-movie actor, and head of the actors' union, Reagan's conversion to conservatism had aroused considerable attention during a speech at the 1964 Republican convention.

Reagan went on to serve two terms as Governor of California, and to mount an unsuccessful challenge for the Republican nomination against President Gerald Ford in 1976 (who then lost to Carter in November).

Howell Raines, who covered the 1980 campaign for The New York Times, wrote of Reagan the night he won the election: "Perhaps there has never been a President-designate who so clearly enjoyed or so thoroughly depended on the sound of his own voice--not as a matter of vanity so much as in the sense that the lawyer depends on his books or statutes and the surgeon on his hands."

For most of the time, the two former Governors were perceived by political writers and many pollsters as running very close indeed. The last New York Times/CBS News Poll conducted during the week leading up to the vote showed Reagan ahead by one percentage point. A Washington Post poll gave Carter a four-point lead.

The possibility that Iran would release the hostages dominated the headlines the weekend before the election, and Carter even cut short his campaigning to return to Washington. But in the end, there was no deal. And with the hostages still in Iran, voters swung to Reagan in a big way.

The final results: Reagan (and his running mate, George H.W. Bush) won 51 percent of the popular vote, to 41 percent for Carter and Vice President Walter Mondale; John Anderson, a Republican Congressman who ran as all Independent, won 7 percent. Carter and Mondale carried only their home states of Georgia and Minnesota; and Maryland, Rhode Island, West Virginia, Hawaii, and the District of Columbia.