Howard Baker refused to spend any money on Mondale’s home state, and Reagan still only lost by a few thousand votes. In hind sight, a mistake—taking the state would have made his landslide surpass Nixon’s.
Who cares how big the landslide might be? What really matters is how well they govern? Do they curtail and reverse in the amount of spending and control that the government has over the lives of Americans? Do they sell us out to special interests? Do they increase or decrease the national debt? The list goes on and on. And most importantly of all, do they themselves and enforce upon all in the executive branch of the federal government the need to faithfully abide by their oaths of office regarding the Constitution?
The way I remember it, Reagan knew he was going to win in a landslide, and he had too much class to rub Mondale’s face in it.
I believe that Reagan did actually win MN in 1984.
But, certain northeastern precincts held back their reporting until late into the night -- and then turned in a very high proportion of votes for Mondale.
I think they waited until they knew how many votes were needed to spare Mondale the embarrassment of losing his home state.