I'm guessing your reason for a Ford victory in '76 would be to stop the rightward drift of both major parties?
Me? If I had to pick, probably '76. Not in the poll options: 1964
Probably not stop it. Ford was the first post-New Deal President, and both parties were moving rightward as early as the late 1940s (excepting the small aberration in the late 60s/early 70s with the Democrats, which had begun moving rightward again by 1973), so that's unfortunately inevitable post Taft-Hartley and in the Cold War environment created by the Red Scare and whatnot. Ford winning in '76 does however probably throw the blame of declining living standards solely on the Republicans, probably allows for a liberal Democrat to win in 1980 and at least slows the decline of organized labor (without an all out assault on labor that we saw under Reagan).
Poll
