There was probably also some party fatigue as well as the GOP were in the Presidency for 8 years by 1976, whereas there wasn't when Reagan got re elected in 1984. Plus the recovery was more noticeable in 1984 than it was in 76. Hell, the economy was technically in recovery in 1992, yet 41 still lost.What's weird is that although both Ford and Reagan entered office when the economy sucked, Reagan was able to take enough credit for the following recovery to get re-elected while Ford wasn't. It's true that Ford had the pardon as an albatross and he probably would've won without it. But it's not like Reagan didn't do things that were controversial.