TLIAW: Bold Colors, Not Pale Pastels

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“Our people look for a cause to believe in. Is it a third party we need, or is it a new and revitalized second party, raising a banner of no pale pastels, but bold colors which make it unmistakably clear where we stand on all of the issues troubling the people?”-Ronald Reagan
TED KENNEDY JUMPS INTO 1980 PRESIDENTIAL RACE-AUGUST 14, 1979
PRESIDENT CATER APPROVAL RATING AT 19%
"I believe we must not permit the dream of social progress to be shattered by those whose premises have failed."-Senator Ted Kennedy, 1980
"The situation in Iran was increasingly unstable. We, after much deliberation, withdrew the US embassy delegation and leave the country. There had been two unsuccessful attempts to seize the emabssy, and we feared a third would be successful. On 12 October, 1979, the US embassy in Iran was closed down and evacuated. "-Secretary of State Cyrus Vance
Gallup poll: Democratic primary(1 December, 1979
Ted Kennedy-45%
Jimmy Carter-35%
Jerry Brown-12%
"We were ahead in the polls and we had a strong position in the early states. Jimmy Carter was hot on our heels and sought an Iowa comeback just like 1976. But he was much more unpopular now and no boost was coming."-Ted Kennedy in a 1990 interview.
"Now we'll show who who is going to whip whose what"-Ted Kennedy on the campaign trail, 1979, in a reference to Carter's boast he would 'whip Kennedy's ass'

Iowa caucus results-Democratic
Jimmy Carter-46.1%
Ted Kennedy-44.2%
"We may not have won tonight, but we took the fight to President Carter. We have made our voices heard, that we will not let the progress our country has made be reversed, we will not allow our country to fall from greatness. See you in New Hampshire, Mr President."
"Iowa had been a close race and Carter narrowly survived in that state. But now the primary headed to New England where Kennedy was leading big. All Carter could hope was a respectable loss there and be able to sweep the South. The fight for the nomination and the soul of the Democratic Party was on."-Portrait of an Election: The 1980 Presidential Campaign by Elizabeth Drew

 
Oh sorry. I'm still excited, a Democratic 80s is always good. :p

This TL is intended to be an exploration of a Ted Kennedy vs Reagan (and Anderson) elect, left vs center vs right. I won't specify how it ends and I'll try to keep it within a week. Enjoy!
 
This TL is intended to be an exploration of a Ted Kennedy vs Reagan (and Anderson) elect, left vs center vs right. I won't specify how it ends and I'll try to keep it within a week. Enjoy!
I'm not sure that Anderson would run in this scenario, but it may make since later on.
 
Dear Athenian Statesman Claus,

I have been a very extra especially super doubleplus good boy this year my mom said so and she knows these things. Please let Mr. Anderson talk Sen. Mark Hatfield into becoming his running mate on a Progressive ticket. They could win Vermont, potentially Maine and Oregon, and maybe even Montana, and throw an Electoral College majority all to effing business. Also please let that old Mr. Reagan pick that young Mr. Kemp as his running mate because he is an unrepentant partisan from the New Right who would provide regional balance. And let Mr. Kennedy lay off the sauce for the duration of the race and either pick that nice astronaut Mr. Glenn because his electoral path now lies almost entirely through the Midwest or somehow convince a Southerner that it is not political suicide to join a Kennedy ticket. And let that nice Mr. Anderson who looks a lot like that guy who draws the Peanuts comics I like get at least 15-20% of the popular vote. Oh, and let The Cray-Cray be unconfined.

PS: Also I would like an authentic Hoth Snowspeeder with cockpit for two action figures with battery operated genuine fake blaster sounds and a working grappling hook with string and also a real Luke Skywalker Flight Suit action figure a proper Kenner one not one of those crappy 21st century retreads because I am totally dating myself thank you very much.
 
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On a more sober side note I was eight during the 1980 election, my first one where I was really paying attention and involved. We lived in Tennessee at the time and my elementary school, the first one in the city deliberately designed to be integrated back in the Sixties, held a students' debate with people speaking for all three major candidates. Carter won (we also had a big Jewish population, no really, the largest Reform schul in the Southeast was three blocks from my house and a lot of the congregation had moved in close by, so between that and busing and professional folk tied to Vanderbilt or other white-collar jobs we trended pretty liberal) with Anderson second. And Tennessee was IIRC the closest margin of victory of any state, near recount territory. Four years earlier my mother, descended from left-wing Southerners all the way down (my great-grandma knew the Highlander Folk School folks), had protest-voted for Mo Udall in freaking Ohio which was decided by a scant few thousand votes. This time, she took me into the voting booth with her, one of the big old metal machines, because the nice League of Women Voters lady at the check-in thought it would be educational, and my mother flipped the various switches including the Carter one, and had me pull the big lever that "counted" the votes. She paused to show me when she flipped Carter's toggle because she'd lived through seven of Reagan's eight years as Governor of California and knew precisely the stakes against which she was fighting.
 
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UNEMPLOYMENT RATE AT 6.2%, INFLATION JUMPS TO 14.1%
Gallup poll-Democratic presidential primary(February 5, 1980)
Ted Kennedy-46%
President Jimmy Carter-44%
"Carter had the momentum after Iowa. New Hampshire was critical, if Kennedy won big there it would set the campaign right back on track."-Ted Kennedy speechwriter, Bob Shrum, in a 1990 interview
Maine caucuses-Democratic(February 10, 1980)
Ted Kennedy-50.0%
Jimmy Carter-33.2%
Jerry Brown-14.5%
"It was a big victory for Senator Kennedy, and reinvigorated his campaign after losing the Iowa caucuses. President Carter had been banking on at least keeping Kennedy down in New England, Now it looked that task was hopeless, and New Hampshire too would go for Kennedy. But Carter still had his Southern firewall."-Portrait of an Election: The 1980 Presidential Campaign by Elizabeth Drew
"The 1980 campaign was focused squarely on New Hampshire. Kennedy was leading in the polls there, but Carter had won New Hampshire in 1976. Carter had hoped that like in 1976 he could win the early states and come from behind to win the nomination. That did not look like it would be the case. Carter acknowledged that reality and pulled out of New Hampshire in the final days.."-Edward M Kennedy: A Biography by Adam Clymer
PRESIDENT CARTER APPROVAL RATING AT 35%
RONALD REAGAN LEADS CARTER 41-39 IN GENERAL ELECTION POLLING, KENNEDY WINS 41-37

"I'm paying for this microphone, Mr Green!"-Ronald Reagan at a Nashua Republican debate
"I need your vote, America needs your vote. If you want the people, and not the special interests, to rule this country, if you want an America that serves all Americans, not just those at the top, if you want the dream of progress to live on, then please give me your vote"-Senator Ted Kennedy campaigning in New Hampshire, February 25, 1980
New Hampshire primary results-Republican
Ronald Reagan-53%
George Bush-21%
Howard Baker-14%
John Anderson-8%
New Hampshire primary results-Democratic
Ted Kennedy-48.30%
Jimmy Carter-35.08%
Jerry Brown-10.60%
"New Hampshire gave big wins to the frontrunners Reagan and Kennedy. Reagan was almost certainly inevitable, Bush's surge after Iowa had come to a quick end, and asides from perhaps Massachusetts and Vermont the party was solidly behind Ronald Reagan and his conservative vision. The Democratic primary was not wrapped up, Kennedy was dominant in New England but Carter was equally, if not more, dominant in the South. The Democratic primary was dead even according to the polls, so far the score was 2 states for Kennedy and 1 state for President Carter. The President believed that he would be able to make a comeback in the South. Senator Kennedy, however, now had the 'Big Mo'."-Portrait of an Election: The 1980 Presidential Campaign by Elizabeth Drew​
 
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