Ford 76, Carter 80

What if

1) Jimmy Carter had been blocked by the ABC (Anybody But Carter) in 1976 via brokered convention despite winning a very large plurality
2) Gerald Ford managed to pull out a win in 1976
3) Jimmy Carter proceeded to come back in 1980, win the Democratic nomination, and win the election?
 
I assume in this timeline Afghanistan and Iran happened as they did in ours - which is handy for Carter because he can blame both of them on Ford. I doubt that the man on the Manhattan omnibus cares much for Afghanistan, but I suspect Carter's handling of the Iran hostage crisis will be the defining element of his presidency.

His environmental message will resonate given the fact that there's an oil crisis happening right then and there. The oil glut later in the decade will again help him; oil is a busted flush.

Carter in the 1980s is an odd mental image. The decade was his antithesis - I've always mentally associated him with Diane Keaton in Annie Hall, organic food and beige clothes, not the dayglo brash synthpop of Crockett and Tubbs in Miami Vice.
 
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