Did the debate win 1980 for Reagan?

[dazzleman]

I don't have specific poll numbers, but prior to the debate, Reagan and Carter were considered too close to call.

The situation, in a nutshell, is that most people hated Carter, but had doubts about Reagan, so there was a great ambivalence.

Because of Carter's extreme unpopularity, Reagan needed only to show that he was a viable alternative to pick up a lot of support.  This is exactly what happened.  After seeing Reagan in the debate, voters who were unhappy with Carter but had doubts about Reagan moved toward Reagan in large numbers.

My guess is that Reagan would have won without the debate, but it would have been closer.  Carter was so unpopular that it is hard to imagine how he could have won.

[dazzleman]

He won the second debate against Carter for not being crazy, as Carter's brilliant pollster put it.

There actually were 2 debates, but Carter did not participate in the first one because he refused to debate with John Anderson, and at the time Reagan refused to debate without Anderson.  So Reagan and Anderson debated.

Carter knew that even though Anderson was nominally a Republican, most of Anderson's votes would come at Carter's expense, and Carter didn't want to give Anderson any exposure.

Reagan decided at the last minute to debate only Carter, and by that time Carter's people saw the danger of the president debating Reagan, and wished he could get out of the debate.  But since he had previously agreed to debate Reagan one-on-one, he had no choice.

I suspect that Carter hoped and believed that Reagan would not abandon his stance of including Anderson in the debates, thereby sparing Carter the necessity of debating him.

[dazzleman]

He won the second debate against Carter for not being crazy, as Carter's brilliant pollster put it.

There actually were 2 debates, but Carter did not participate in the first one because he refused to debate with John Anderson, and at the time Reagan refused to debate without Anderson.  So Reagan and Anderson debated.

I know that, I meant Reagan won the seocond debate by not being crazy.

Actually, I should have responded to NixonNow, who claimed there was only one debate.

1980 was my favorite election within my lifetime.