Carter defeats Reagen

Sorry.

The premise itself is so funny ........

About the only way to get Carter re-elected is to completely change the four years he had and the basic personality of the man. So you would end up with someone other than Carter even if your scenario does happen.
 
Luck plays a huge part in military issues. I think that it is possible that the helicopters might have happened to have better mechanics. It is possible that with a lot of luck most of the hostages might have been rescued (though the rest, unlike OTL, would have died.)

Then there is debategate. WI a Repbublican, had a pang of conscience, and let Carter know of the plan to cheat. Carter might have changed his strategy and people might have had a different view of the debate.

Also WI Reagan had shaken hands, on camera, with a guy in Philadelphia Miss, who turns out to have been implicated in the 1964 murders.
 
Sorry.

The premise itself is so funny ........

About the only way to get Carter re-elected is to completely change the four years he had and the basic personality of the man. So you would end up with someone other than Carter even if your scenario does happen.

You're getting confused. In 1980, Carter could have been reelected. All that was required was some resolution to the hostage taking. In 1984 Reagan was unbeatable.

With a second Carter Presidency, the issue of course would be the economy and I'm not enough of an economist to guess what would happen. But I do know this, the man given the most credit for getting inflation under control was Paul Voelker, the Fed chairman. Voelker was a Carter appointee.
 
You have got to be kidding. There is no way that Jimmy Carter could have been re-elected other than stealing the election. In addition to the mess that was US foreign policy there was the 21% inflation rate and considerable unemployment.
 
I agree, it's pretty hard.

Tis a shame, for Carter would've ended the Cold War a few years earlier.

Would a much better hostage crisis resolution done the trick, though? I'm thinking that it could have given him just enough votes to squeeze out another victory if the rescue was suitably 'kick-ass and awesome' (or can be spun as such).
 

MrHola

Banned
What if he appoints Paul Volcker earlier? If lucky, he will manage to squeeze inflation out of the economy by the 1980 elections. Then again, we still have Afghanistan and the Iranian Embassy Crisis to worry about.
 
I agree, it's pretty hard.

Tis a shame, for Carter would've ended the Cold War a few years earlier.

I nearly spewed my drink all over my computer when I read your comment. Carter's foreign policy was inept. The cold war ends during Carter's 2nd term only if the US throws in the towel regarding strategic arms. Carter took the 1st step toward doing just that w/the 1979 SALT-2 treaty he signed w/Brezhnev. The Senate didn't even ratify it it was so bad.
 
You're getting confused. In 1980, Carter could have been reelected. All that was required was some resolution to the hostage taking. In 1984 Reagan was unbeatable.

With a second Carter Presidency, the issue of course would be the economy and I'm not enough of an economist to guess what would happen. But I do know this, the man given the most credit for getting inflation under control was Paul Voelker, the Fed chairman. Voelker was a Carter appointee.

It is ironic that Reagan won in 1980 because so many Americans wanted to stop inflation badly enough that they went for change for the sake of change. For Carter to have won, he would have had to resolve the hostage situation early, AND Reagan would have had to say or do something that made him appear weak OR too old.
 
What if he appoints Paul Volcker earlier? If lucky, he will manage to squeeze inflation out of the economy by the 1980 elections. Then again, we still have Afghanistan and the Iranian Embassy Crisis to worry about.

It probably wouldn't have mattered. The control of inflation in 1983 came as the result of long term economic cycles that brought to control the escalation in real estate development and petroleum resourcing. The same policies would not have had the same effect in 1977.
 
I nearly spewed my drink all over my computer when I read your comment. Carter's foreign policy was inept. The cold war ends during Carter's 2nd term only if the US throws in the towel regarding strategic arms. Carter took the 1st step toward doing just that w/the 1979 SALT-2 treaty he signed w/Brezhnev. The Senate didn't even ratify it it was so bad.


And? Oil has to drop from crisis level prices. And it was first Carter administration that played Soviets to intervene more and more in Afganistan (its publicly admitted by top administration officials... but of course I'm just lying and dirty commie supporter)

With Soviets in Afghanistan OPEC becomes much more friendly to USA (as in OTL), Oil prices start dropping by mid '80es... and USSR has to go. They shouldn't and couldn't have afforded gaining armaments parity to US in '70es without inflated oil prices... and once those fall... USSR dies.

Its all so silly connected that you have a almost certainty of USSR falling in '90es no matter what they do with any POD past 1980.


You hate Carter because he told you you weren't supperior to everyone else, that God fobird, you actualy had to work and suffer consequences when things go bad, that unlimited consumerism can only lead to disaster. Guess what? Carter didnt cause the Oil Crisis, and that was 90% reason behind your high inflation.
 
And? Oil has to drop from crisis level prices. And it was first Carter administration that played Soviets to intervene more and more in Afganistan (its publicly admitted by top administration officials... but of course I'm just lying and dirty commie supporter)

With Soviets in Afghanistan OPEC becomes much more friendly to USA (as in OTL), Oil prices start dropping by mid '80es... and USSR has to go. They shouldn't and couldn't have afforded gaining armaments parity to US in '70es without inflated oil prices... and once those fall... USSR dies.

Its all so silly connected that you have a almost certainty of USSR falling in '90es no matter what they do with any POD past 1980.


You hate Carter because he told you you weren't supperior to everyone else, that God fobird, you actualy had to work and suffer consequences when things go bad, that unlimited consumerism can only lead to disaster. Guess what? Carter didnt cause the Oil Crisis, and that was 90% reason behind your high inflation.

I said nothing about oil or OPEC, nor did I say anything the Soviet Union's demise or about my feelings for President Carter in my post upthread. I only made a statement regarding my estimation of his foreign policy performance. I will presume that you quoted my response to Faeelin's comment by mistake, and I accept your apology in advance.
 
You have got to be kidding. There is no way that Jimmy Carter could have been re-elected other than stealing the election. In addition to the mess that was US foreign policy there was the 21% inflation rate and considerable unemployment.

This is really one of the most annoying sealionesque cliches here in AH.COM. The two candidates were running neck to neck until the famous debate, just days before the election where Reagan uttered his famous: "Are you better off now than you were 4 years ago?"
 
I nearly spewed my drink all over my computer when I read your comment. Carter's foreign policy was inept. The cold war ends during Carter's 2nd term only if the US throws in the towel regarding strategic arms. Carter took the 1st step toward doing just that w/the 1979 SALT-2 treaty he signed w/Brezhnev. The Senate didn't even ratify it it was so bad.

Pop quiz: Which president rescinded the grain embargo that helped lead to the formation of Solidarity and was causing serious strife in the USSR to secure a few midwestern farm votes?
 
You have got to be kidding. There is no way that Jimmy Carter could have been re-elected other than stealing the election. In addition to the mess that was US foreign policy there was the 21% inflation rate and considerable unemployment.

Inflation was NOT 21% or anything close to it. It peaked at slightly over 10%. INTEREST RATES got up to 21%, but that was because the Federal Reserve was jacking them up in order to bring inflation back under control. And in the end, that strategy worked. It just took a couple of years to happen, and Reagan got the credit instead of Carter.
 
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