Why would Ford have retired? Wouldn’t he have just run again for his 2nd term? I’m pretty sure he would have been allowed to as you’re allowed to run for two terms and since he filled out 1/2 of Nixon’s he still would have been eligible.
Even if he didn’t, I’d think Dole as the VP would have been in good shape.
And while no one knows what would have happened from 77-80 if Ford had won, if we assu,e the same things happened(the Iran hostage crisis, the bad economy, high infaltion, gas lines, etc...)it would have been very difficult for any Republican to win. A win in 1980 would have been 4 straight wins for the GOP, which would have been extremely difficult given all that had happened. Who knows, though.
Maybe after Carter lost in 76 and suffering 3 straight defeats the dems would have turned back to the glory days of Camelot and Teddy would have won in 80 as the public got fed up with a decade of GOP rule.
All interesting things to ponder.
Let’s see:
1. Nixon’s second term began in 1973 and he left office in 19974. That means Ford served more than 2 years and had he won reelection he could have only served those 4 years.
2. I agree what happened with Ford in office 1976 to 1980 would have had a lot to do with how the 1980 election turned out.
It is fun to speculate but like Beck’s conjecture about McCain it is only just conjecture.