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Reagan won in a LARGE landslide, because Carter was almost as bad as ZERO.

It's a very different world today than it was in 1980, though. Two threads, the first sociological. The welfare state has expanded exponentially in 32 years; we're now on our second, and in some cases, third generation of people who live off the kindness of the state. The demographic numbers favor these people, and they ain't voting for any cat who preaches bootstraps, austerity, and individual freedoms.

The second thread: The media. The media is far more heavily invested in Obama's narrative than they were in Carter's narrative. They aren't going to let America's first Affirmative Action president take it on the chin, and let's face it - they control the story. Obama's going to have a tremendous advantage here.

The other dynamic that is missing is an in-your-face foreign policy crisis. Carter was utterly impotent and inept in taking on Khomeini and the thugs (including Ahmadinejad) he sent to kidnap our embassy personnel. That went on for over a year leading up to the election and people simply lost what little confidence they had in Carter as an effective leader. It's true that Carter was either leading in the polls or the election was very close right up until almost the day of the election, with Reagan barely inching ahead in some polls the final week. I read a story that the night before the election Carter's people took a poll and it showed that Reagan's lead was blowing wide open, and they attributed it to the hostages thing.

Could something similar happen this time? I kind of doubt it. Obammy has been a disaster in terms of foreign policy but I don't see anyone out there who is willing to take on the US in terms of a military-hostage situation, largely thanks to decisive action by GWB in that area. There will likely be an airstrike by Israel against Iran but Obangi will, as usually, sit on his skinny a$$ during that. About the only thing I see as possible that will knock Odouchebag off his stride to re-election would be gasoline in the $5 to $6 range. Unless it gets to $5 I don't think people will care. Already we're seeing the attitude of "Oh, it's only $4, that isn't bad, and besides, it isn't Obama's fault." Idiots.

You are correct, it is a VERY different world today.

I’ll add that Mittens is not Ronald Reagan.

I’m not feeling good at all about Mittens chances for a win. I don’t like him at all either but I HATE oblabla.