Operation Eagle Claw suceeds in 1980

Suppose President Carter's operation "Eagle Claw" to rescue the hostages from Iran in April 1980 hadn't failed, I figure he would still have lost to Reagan but not as badly as he actually did.
 
Concur. Reagan would still have won given the economy, and Carter's not being "tough enough" with the Soviets. Reagan probably would've had about 350-375 electoral votes that November. Carter IMHO would have been a fine UN Ambassador or a halfway decent SecState, but just wasn't tough
enough or ruthless enough to be President. He was often too naive (did he really think boycotting the Moscow Olympics would get the Russians out of Afghanistan?), and micromanaging EAGLE CLAW wasn't a good idea, either. He thought the rescue force would use some kind of knock-out gas or shoot to wound. Charlie Beckwith said no, any Iranian with a weapon in hand gets two in the chest and one in the head, period. No exceptions.
 
Top