The ‘84 election

Too young to remember but my guess is that they put up a front.

Remember, Carter being dead before the polls closed was blamed for Dem Senate losses in western states like Idaho. They weren’t going to repeat that mistake.

The polls said Mondale had a 92 percent chance of winning

'84 was a bloodbath.

This is the county by county results:



And there is this tidbit:

Psephologists attributed the Republican victory to "Reagan Democrats", millions of Democrats who voted for Reagan, as in 1980. They characterized such Reagan Democrats as southern whites and northern blue collar workers who voted for Reagan because they credited him with the economic recovery, saw Reagan as strong on national security issues, and perceived the Democrats as supporting the poor and minorities at the expense of the middle class.


The media touted the early polls, which had Reagan 48-47. By October it was 59-41. Ironically, it was the most accurate presidential polls in history. The final result was 58.8 - 40.6

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The media was liberal then but not nearly to the extreme that they are now.

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This.

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Foregone conclusion. The media was liberal then but not nearly to the extreme that they are now.

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Correct. Stuff like gay marriage, tranny madness, courts observing sharia law weren’t even on the radar. Back then the Dems actually pretended to care about what atheist Jews and blacks thought. They always used to side with the soviets because they wanted economic communism or socialism, but they didn’t outright hate fellow citizens like they do now.

GDP grew by 7.3% from 1983-84. This is why Reagan won 84 in a landslide.

He also had an approval rating 55-60% going into that election.

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GDP grew by 7.3% from 1983-84. This is why Reagan won 84 in a landslide.

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Mondale was a turrible candidate as well. Even Dems rejected him.

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I was just a kid for the ‘84 election. In the lead up to November of that year, did the media act as if they thought Mondale had a real chance? Or did they go ahead and accept Reagan’s reelection as a foregone conclusion?

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I was a Sophomore in college. Mondale was the shiny new thing during the primaries. The media loved him. When the parade was over (DNC convention). It seemed like reality was setting in. The glimmer began to fade. The election was pretty low key and the results were pretty sobering.

There was no social media and news was available only in print and network TV. People really were blind to what was happening or coming.

If you watched the average national newscast from the 70s & 80s today, you would think Fox News owned all of the networks.

They were certainly harder on Republicans but....they were also hard on Democrats.

Nobody thought Mondale had a shot. The national news built him up as much as they could.

With the understanding that I wasn't around the blue hubs in the northeast or the west coast and they might have thought he had a shot.