Well, hundreds of Americans held hostage and a rescue attempt that didn’t get off the ground helped a little.
Point being, in march of 1980, Reagan was going to be obliterated by Carter. Al the polls said so.
and I remember about 50 or 60 hostages. Not hundreds. Anyway, the point wasn’t WHY Carter lost. Its that he lost in a freakin’ landslide. And 8 months before the vote, every poll you could find was predicting disaster for Reagan, the dull witted, actor, unqualified, candidate.
Just like this stack of polls presented here.