Why did Ronald Reagan Dominate

[TheKlown]

in his Presidential Election run? Were his opponents all crap?

[Korriken]

At 6/2/13 04:37 AM, TheKlown wrote: in his Presidential Election run? Were his opponents all crap?

by the time Jimmy Carter was done with his first term, the republicans could have gotten an empty soup can elected to office, if it ran as a republican. Carter wasn't a bad guy, he's done a lot of work for humanitarian efforts, but, he just wasn't presidential material.

by time Reagan's reelection came up, the economy has spiked and his tough stance on communism helped too.

[Camarohusky]

He was a very charismatic President. On top of that his personality and views fit the zeitgeist of the time.

In short, he was the right candidate at the right time.

[Warforger]

At 6/2/13 04:37 AM, TheKlown wrote: in his Presidential Election run? Were his opponents all crap?

His first opponent was Jimmy Carter who at that point was failing in every field. His domestic policy towards curbing stagflation was ineffective and he accidentally blamed the American people for it in one of his speeches i.e. the "malaise speech". His foreign policy failed as Iran turned into an Islamic republic hostile to the US and was holding hostages. He proved unable to do anything, he sent in a military strike but when the two helicopters in the attack took off a sandstorm hit and they crashed into each other. Years earlier it wasn't as bad especially after he finally made peace with Israel and Egypt, but everything that could've gone wrong in his election year did. The economy in particular went down hard in 1980. Reagan on top of that had always been an opponent of Carter and a good speech presenter so he was able to defeat Carter easily.

In 1984 the Democrats chose Walter Mondale to run...... The problem here is that Walter Mondale was the Vice President of Jimmy Carter. Why people thought picking him to run was a good idea is beyond me. On top of that Walter Mondale proved to be a poor candidate as he couldn't motivate anyone or prove why he was better than Reagan. Reagan on the other hand had somewhat improved the economy and it was seen as better than what they had before. The problem ended up being that the Democrats had a problem of picking candidates who were too far to the left, like how Republicans right now have a problem of picking candidates who are too far to the right. So what they did was they weakened the ability of party members in Congress to pick candidates, and from there we finally got Clinton.

[Fim]

He was the first president who really understood pr and how important it was to be likeable, he had a Hollywood taught charisma and experience with public speaking which probably helped. I think it's kinda funny how his legacy has been completely whitewashed by republicans.