Posted on 05/31/2015 2:27:32 PM PDT by nickcarraway
I strongly disagree. No way that the RATs would near-sweep the South without a Southerner atop the ticket, even if it was Scoop-Carter or Scoop-Askew. (Which reminds me, (I forgot to list FL among the Carter states that Ford would have won against Scoop Jackson.) And without Minnesotan Walter Mondale on the RAT ticket, Ford would have carried WI (which he barely lost; that was the state that would have put Ford over the top against Carter, since he needed OH and one more) and maybe even MN (two states, BTW, in which many dovish Democrats would have stayed home had Scoop Jackson led the ticket).
I agree, Carter did way better in the South than any non-Southern democrat would have. This was especially evident in 1980 when the South was very close even though Reagan took every Southern state but GA (and WV).
But I don’t see why Scoop Jackson wouldn’t have appealed to people more in enough other states (like Ca and my IL) than the hayseed Carter, even if he lost a few peaceniks votes to apathy or McCarthy. I expect it would have been another close race.
Fortunately, we’ll never find out who is right. If Jackson had won, it’s very possible he would’ve won reelection in 1980, and we’d have never had Reagan.
WV ain’t Southern., It’s a Border StateThat was settled in 1863. Plus, WV voted for the GOP presidential candidate in each of 1895, 1900, 1904 and 1908; of the 13 Southern states (OK was admitted in 1907), only once did a single istate vote for the GOP presidential candidate, and it was KY voting for McKinley over Bryan by less than 300 votes in 1896.
Sheesh, lots of fat typing on my iPhone there. Let me try again:
WV ain’t Southern. It’s a Border State. That was settled in 1863. Plus, WV voted for the GOP presidential candidate in each of 1896, 1900, 1904 and 1908; of the 13 Southern states (OK was admitted in 1907), only once did a single state vote for the GOP presidential candidate, and it was KY voting for McKinley over Bryan by less than 300 votes in 1896.
That’s why I put it in parenthesis, intending to show it as optionally Southern, Robert Byrd thought so when he made a cameo as a Confederate General. Other people think so also. I wouldn’t call it Southern.
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