Plausability check Carter heavilyt beats Reagan in 76

Is it possible that Reagan could have won the nomination in 1976 and Carter have beaten him by a larger margin than he did Ford in OTL.

I kind of think it would have been possible to portray him as the second coming of Goldwater, In OTL in 1980 he promoted 'states Rights' in Philadqphia MIS sight of one of the more notorious racist terrorist acts by people favouring that view.


If Reagan had lost by between 6 and 20 points would that have made him un nominatable in 1980, even assuming Carter has as much trouble as he did in otl
 
Is it possible that Reagan could have won the nomination in 1976 and Carter have beaten him by a larger margin than he did Ford in OTL.

I kind of think it would have been possible to portray him as the second coming of Goldwater, In OTL in 1980 he promoted 'states Rights' in Philadqphia MIS sight of one of the more notorious racist terrorist acts by people favouring that view.


If Reagan had lost by between 6 and 20 points would that have made him un nominatable in 1980, even assuming Carter has as much trouble as he did in otl

Not likely, unless he would have adopted a crazy pro-Nixon stance.
 
It is highly unlikely that Reagan would have lost to Carter in 1976. Reagan was a man who knew how to talk to the American People. He could deliever a speech that struck a cord with the Public. Neither Gerald Ford nor Jimmy Carter was able to do that.
 
1976 was bound to be a Democratic year. Watergate, high inflation, recession, plus fatigue after 8 eight years of contentious Republican presidential rule. Carter arguably underperformed that year - Ford was able to hold on to many moderate voters especially in the Midwest and Northeast over worries about Carter's inexperience.

Reagan was still perceived as something of a radical at the time - sort of how Rick Perry is viewed today. It ended up not mattering in 1980, because with Carter's approvals in the 30s and the economy in a nasty recession Carter was a dead man walking. However in '76, Reagan's weaknesses would have weighed more heavily.

I doubt a 20-point victory is realistic, but a somewhat larger 5-7 point Carter win is entirely plausible. Whether that's enough to snuff out Reagan's hopes for 1980 is a bigger question. Certainly a narrow (2-3 point) Reagan loss could be spun as "best anyone could" given the Democrats' advantages that year. 5-6 points is harder. So you might then get George HW Bush as the 1980 nominee and president eight years earlier.
 
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