DBWI: Carter loses reelection?

[Prussian1871]

As many of you know, the 1980 Presidential Election was one of the more closer elections between President Jimmy Carter and Governor Ronald Reagan. While Carter initially held a huge led in early 1980, the worsening economy led to Reagan creeping up in the polls. However Carter was able to free the American hostages in Iran and go on to win in November.

But what if Ronald Reagan had defeated Carter? What if the hostages had not been freed until after the election? Also, a Republican known as John Anderson was considering running as an Independent, but did not. Would Anderson have pulled more votes from Carter or Reagan? Could that have decided the election?

 

[DracoLazarus]

No metric system in the US today, everyone trolling America because of this ?

 

[Peabody-Martini]

I doubt the solar industry would have developed as fast as it did if at all in the US. Germany or China wouldn't be competitors but leaders in this field.

Many of the players in the Reagan campaign were retreads from the Nixon administration. The odds of there being a Watergate type scandal would have been extremely high.

Reagan himself had stated that he wanted to take a firm stand against the Soviet Union. As we know now that his winning the Republican nomination strengthened the hand of hard liners within the Kremlin. Would a Reagan presidency have extended the Cold war or worse create the crisis the resulted in nuclear war.

One more obscure detail is that Reagan was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease sometime in the late eighties. How would that have factored?

 

[RySenkari]

The minimum wage would be somewhere between $11-13 (depending on when they would've started indexing it to cost of living like Congress did in 1982) rather than $17.40/hour like it is now.

 

[Miss Teri]

With Reagan's less than stellar record on Civil Rights, would he put the same level of sanctions on Apartheid South Africa as Jimmy Carter, which led to the peaceful transition to majority rule in that country?

 

[ramones1986]

How about the possibility of the supporters of Sen. Kennedy opposing the policies of Carter as the possible PoD?

 

[Somedevil]

Cars would not be getting 30 KPL like they do today more like 9 KPL.

 

[HongCanucker]

Anderson probably wouldn't have pulled forward - he wasn't really as charismatic as Reagan, and it was a close two-horse race anyway.