Operation Eagle Claw happened in the spring of 1980 - long before the debates. It's just a record of fact that Carter enjoyed a comfortable lead going into the 1980 Presidential Debates, and had a few point lead going into the last debate. You might remember that Reagan was holding out on the second debate because Carter wanted to exclude Anderson. But, with Reagan trailing in the polls, he acquiesced to Carter's demands and Anderson was excluded.
Reagan crushed Carter in that second debate turning a close race into a blowout for Reagan. It was the debates, more than anything else that won the race for Reagan.
"Bush and Kerry switched leads throughout 2004, long before the debates."
No once said it didn't. What I said was Kerry was leading Bush - outside the margin of error - up until such a time that the OBL tape came out. IOW, the Kerry's debate performance helped him and hurt Bush.
It all added up, because the Iran hostages were still being held by Khomeini and his Islamic crazies. Until the hostages were released, it was an open sore. Kinda like how Bush's approval ratings in 2008, were affected by the war in Iraq, despite the war starting long before 2008.
Bottom line: Iran was one of of the biggest reasons that Cater lost to Reagan. Reagan kept hammering him on it, and it resonated with American voters, who were fed up with America being made to look impotent and foolish by a bunch of medieval Islamic mullahs.
“No once said it didn't. What I said was Kerry was leading Bush - outside the margin of error - up until such a time that the OBL tape came out. IOW, the Kerry's debate performance helped him and hurt Bush.”
Again, Bush and Kerry had switched leads all year. Accept it or not, Bush won because of the Swift boaters. It had nothing to do with the debates which Kerry kept “winning”, and Bin Laden’s tape had little to do with it.
The point being, your insistence that Sarah Palin will “lose” in the debates so therefore she cannot win a presidential elections is nonsense.