It had been a rough time for the United States leading up to the 1980 election. The resignation of Nixon over Watergate and the ascension of his unelected Vice President George Bush to the White House had been a troubling time. Bush’s insistence on trying to hold the line in Vietnam up until the last minute left him woefully unpopular and paved the way for the rise of Senator George McGovern in the 1976 Democratic primaries. Senator McGovern had been the runner-up in 1972, narrowly losing to Muskie in the primaries and at the convention. While at the time he had seemed a radical and even in 1976 was made out to be one as he selected fellow antiwar Senator Mike Gravel to be his running mate, he managed to nonetheless crush President Bush in a landslide. McGovern promised many things: détente, amnesty for those who avoided the draft, universal healthcare, ethics in government. And to his credit he did try his damn hardest to make those promises reality. Unfortunately Congress was reluctant to play ball. Crises he inherited refused to go away and new ones dawned over the course of his term. Perhaps his assassination at the hands of the Manson acolyte Squeaky Fromme helped salvage his legacy in a sense in the end.
That left Vice President Gravel in the position of President of the United States going into 1979. Gravel shared the McGovern agenda. Unfortunately Gravel had one big problem that the sympathy following McGovern’s death couldn’t overcome: he was just not that good at being likeable, at least to his fellow politicians. His efforts to push through more direct democracy, better healthcare and strengthened voting rights floundered amidst a hostile relationship with Congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle. Gravel did make overtures to the party at large by selecting the union-friendly Adlai Stevenson III as his Vice President. But overall, Gravel’s friction with Congress coupled with unstable oil markets, problems in Iran and claims his nuclear policy mounted to appeasement seemed to leave an opening for the Republicans. The GOP had not been without its struggles—the legacy of Watergate loomed large and the party’s conservatives had become divided after former Governor Ronald Reagan died in a plane crash just after announcing a primary challenge to President Bush—sparking conspiracy theories on the fringes and leaving uncertainty of how to proceed for that wing of the party. Ultimately, conservatives would rally behind New York Senator James Buckley, affectionately known as ‘the Buck’ to his fans. The brother of William F. Buckley selected South Carolina Governor William Westmoreland as his running mate as a symbol of the revived American power he planned to bring.
There were other candidates on the ballot too—independent Tom McCall and Libertarian Eugene Burns each got around 3% of the vote for instance—but it was a Buckley vs. Gravel race. And it was clear from the get-go it would be a narrow one. Gravel had a number of advantages—incumbency and sympathy being at the top of the list, just ahead of wariness about Buckley leading America into another quagmire war on Westmoreland’s advice. But Buckley had some too. Many looked at the liberalism of McGovern and Gravel and had begun to balk. Things seemed like they might be moving a bit too fast. And their plans weren’t working—look at Iran! Look here at home! The competing advantages and disadvantages made the election widely seen as too close to call going in. And few could have seen the outcome. A few thousand votes in the state of New York—that was what it had come down to. And there would be many, many lawsuits and recounts to verify the results. But in the end, the initial call held. Despite a popular vote loss, it was James Buckley would be inaugurated as president on January 20, 1981. All Gravel could do was take solace in his popular vote win and keep his eyes on how things proceeded while devouring as many Grover Cleveland biographies as he could find…
That left Vice President Gravel in the position of President of the United States going into 1979. Gravel shared the McGovern agenda. Unfortunately Gravel had one big problem that the sympathy following McGovern’s death couldn’t overcome: he was just not that good at being likeable, at least to his fellow politicians. His efforts to push through more direct democracy, better healthcare and strengthened voting rights floundered amidst a hostile relationship with Congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle. Gravel did make overtures to the party at large by selecting the union-friendly Adlai Stevenson III as his Vice President. But overall, Gravel’s friction with Congress coupled with unstable oil markets, problems in Iran and claims his nuclear policy mounted to appeasement seemed to leave an opening for the Republicans. The GOP had not been without its struggles—the legacy of Watergate loomed large and the party’s conservatives had become divided after former Governor Ronald Reagan died in a plane crash just after announcing a primary challenge to President Bush—sparking conspiracy theories on the fringes and leaving uncertainty of how to proceed for that wing of the party. Ultimately, conservatives would rally behind New York Senator James Buckley, affectionately known as ‘the Buck’ to his fans. The brother of William F. Buckley selected South Carolina Governor William Westmoreland as his running mate as a symbol of the revived American power he planned to bring.
There were other candidates on the ballot too—independent Tom McCall and Libertarian Eugene Burns each got around 3% of the vote for instance—but it was a Buckley vs. Gravel race. And it was clear from the get-go it would be a narrow one. Gravel had a number of advantages—incumbency and sympathy being at the top of the list, just ahead of wariness about Buckley leading America into another quagmire war on Westmoreland’s advice. But Buckley had some too. Many looked at the liberalism of McGovern and Gravel and had begun to balk. Things seemed like they might be moving a bit too fast. And their plans weren’t working—look at Iran! Look here at home! The competing advantages and disadvantages made the election widely seen as too close to call going in. And few could have seen the outcome. A few thousand votes in the state of New York—that was what it had come down to. And there would be many, many lawsuits and recounts to verify the results. But in the end, the initial call held. Despite a popular vote loss, it was James Buckley would be inaugurated as president on January 20, 1981. All Gravel could do was take solace in his popular vote win and keep his eyes on how things proceeded while devouring as many Grover Cleveland biographies as he could find…
