Anyone here old enough to remember the 1984 presidential election?
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  Anyone here old enough to remember the 1984 presidential election?
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Author Topic: Anyone here old enough to remember the 1984 presidential election?  (Read 6610 times)
Bay Ridge, Bklyn! Born and Bred
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« on: December 06, 2007, 11:47:12 PM »

I was reading an article the other day about the 1984 Democratic primary race.  You know, the one with all these goofy characters like Mondale, Gary Hart, Jesse Jackson, etc....but one candidate in partucular seemed to stick out from the pack: former Florida governor Reubin O'Donovan Askew.

The thing that striked me about Askew is that on paper, he seemed to be the perfect Demcoratic candidate:   

1.  exectutive experience
2.  was at the forefront of the civil rights movement and championed school desegregation in the South (thus sowing his progressive/liberal credentials)
3.  was a moderate governor who according to a Harvard study was one of the best US governors OF ALL TIME,
4.  "presidential" good looks
5.  former Army paratrooper

The funny thing is, he finished NEAR LAST in Iowa caucus and NH primary, and soon dropped out of the race.   My question to those who might remember:  why?   Did he have a squeaky voice?  Was he dull?  Was he four feet tall?     Why was it that he got surpassed by all these worthless senators like Hart, Eagelton, and Jimmy Carter-clone Mondale?
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Dr. Cynic
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« Reply #1 on: December 07, 2007, 02:47:45 PM »

I was reading an article the other day about the 1984 Democratic primary race.  You know, the one with all these goofy characters like Mondale, Gary Hart, Jesse Jackson, etc....but one candidate in partucular seemed to stick out from the pack: former Florida governor Reubin O'Donovan Askew.

The thing that striked me about Askew is that on paper, he seemed to be the perfect Demcoratic candidate:   

1.  exectutive experience
2.  was at the forefront of the civil rights movement and championed school desegregation in the South (thus sowing his progressive/liberal credentials)
3.  was a moderate governor who according to a Harvard study was one of the best US governors OF ALL TIME,
4.  "presidential" good looks
5.  former Army paratrooper

The funny thing is, he finished NEAR LAST in Iowa caucus and NH primary, and soon dropped out of the race.   My question to those who might remember:  why?   Did he have a squeaky voice?  Was he dull?  Was he four feet tall?     Why was it that he got surpassed by all these worthless senators like Hart, Eagelton, and Jimmy Carter-clone Mondale?

Likely the lack of an organization or money. Mondale had the establishment behind him, Hart was new and charismatic, I can't make a claim for Eagleton. Jackson had the minority vote... What was left if this guy didn't have cash?
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ill ind
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« Reply #2 on: December 07, 2007, 04:44:02 PM »

  I'm old enough to remember 1984--scary!!!
  Askew was a pretty small fish in a big sea.
  Mondale had all the extablishment behind him.  Jackson had about half the black vote--Mondale who had a good civil rights record had the other half.  Hart was the insurgent candidate.
  Even the other also rans--Cranston, Glenn, Hollings, and George McGovern were better known than Askew.

Ill Ind
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gorkay
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« Reply #3 on: December 07, 2007, 05:52:41 PM »

Why did you have to put it that way? Yes, there are a few survivors of the 1984 election still alive... although, like World War I veterans, we are few and far between.

Reubin Askew waited too long to run for president. Probably he should have run in '72 or '76, when he was kind of a hot item in Democratic circles. Back then he was considered charismatic and a good public speaker, and one of the "new" Southern Democrats. But Jimmy Carter beat him to the punch. By '84 he was old hat, and too much like too many of the other candidates who initially ran in what was at first a crowded and pretty mediocre field of Democratic hopefuls. Essentially they were all vying for the anti-Mondale vote (except Jackson, who had his own niche), and when Gary Hart finished second in the Iowa caucuses, all the stop-Mondale Dems flocked to him, leaving the others with only marginal support.

I never thought he was all that good-looking. He had a big nose. Of course, that didn't stop Nixon.
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Joe Biden 2020
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« Reply #4 on: December 07, 2007, 09:35:52 PM »

I was only two years old during the 1984 campaign, so I don't remember that much about it.
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WalterMitty
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« Reply #5 on: December 07, 2007, 11:41:29 PM »

askew was pro life.  pro lifers dont do well in democrat primaries.
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Bay Ridge, Bklyn! Born and Bred
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« Reply #6 on: December 08, 2007, 03:12:52 PM »

askew was pro life.  pro lifers dont do well in democrat primaries.


Zing!   

Okay thanks for all your input.  I didn't realize Askew was not as progressive as I had thought.   Being anti-choice would have been a disqualifier for me, too.   
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HardRCafé
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« Reply #7 on: December 10, 2007, 01:20:52 AM »

I doubt even Jimmy Eat World is old enough to remember this election.
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Small Business Owner of Any Repute
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« Reply #8 on: December 10, 2007, 01:48:35 AM »

Wasn't Bob Graham the perfect candidate on paper last go around?
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Јas
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« Reply #9 on: December 10, 2007, 10:52:55 AM »

Born the day before, so my memories of this period are less than lucid.
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HappyWarrior
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« Reply #10 on: December 10, 2007, 01:23:04 PM »

Joe Biden of his day Wink  Perfect on paper but could'nt gain traction.  Sorry, had to mention the Joementum!  :-D
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HardRCafé
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« Reply #11 on: December 10, 2007, 02:56:52 PM »

Joe Biden is a lot like Feen-A-Mint:  apparently gets the job done for a select group of people, but no one else is going to get excited about it.
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JSojourner
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« Reply #12 on: December 22, 2007, 10:48:53 PM »

This was the first election I ever voted in.  At the time, I was attending Bible College and was quite the little fundamentalist.  So, it was Ronnie Ray-gun all the way.  I even had his picture up on my dorm room wall.

I didn't do the primary thing because I voted absentee in the general.  (Straight Repub. ticket back in the day.

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J. J.
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« Reply #13 on: December 25, 2007, 12:12:36 AM »

  I'm old enough to remember 1984--scary!!!
  Askew was a pretty small fish in a big sea.
  Mondale had all the extablishment behind him.  Jackson had about half the black vote--Mondale who had a good civil rights record had the other half.  Hart was the insurgent candidate.
  Even the other also rans--Cranston, Glenn, Hollings, and George McGovern were better known than Askew.

Ill Ind

He was also, in some ways conservative; he supported the invasion Grenada, for example.  But, as was said, he was a small fish in a big pond.  Glenn was suppose to be the anti-Mondale, but he fizzled.  Hart basically was able to package himself as the "New Democrat."
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gorkay
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« Reply #14 on: December 25, 2007, 05:57:38 PM »

Mondale actually wasn't a bad candidate. He certainly wasn't a flaming liberal, as he was portrayed. But he ran in the wrong year. If he had run another time, he may have done much better.
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JSojourner
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« Reply #15 on: December 27, 2007, 10:30:06 PM »

Mondale actually wasn't a bad candidate. He certainly wasn't a flaming liberal, as he was portrayed. But he ran in the wrong year. If he had run another time, he may have done much better.

He was, and is, a highly intelligent man who would have made a fine President.  Wish I had voted for him.
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SingingAnalyst
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« Reply #16 on: May 05, 2015, 10:28:10 PM »

Yes. Though I am from Macomb, MI (capital of the Reagan Dems where Reagan would win 66.2%, the best showing in Macomb for a Republican since the 1920s), I was a student in Cambridge, MA, which would vote 76.2% Mondale, the 3rd highest percentage in Cambridge for a Dem ever. I remember the vibe among my new compatriates that we were on the verge of nuclear war if Reagan were re-elected, and that it was almost inhuman not to vote Mondale. In the end I voted Reagan, but could easily have gone the other way (I did however vote Dem for Senate, thus splitting my ticket). I recall being surprised at the size of Reagan's win, not surprising considering where I was living at the time.
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pbrower2a
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« Reply #17 on: May 14, 2015, 09:31:00 AM »
« Edited: May 14, 2015, 09:59:09 AM by pbrower2a »

The trick is not in having seen it -- it is in remembering it. The biggest question was whether Walter Mondale could even win Minnesota.
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DS0816
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« Reply #18 on: May 14, 2015, 10:42:37 AM »

I was 13 that year. In my home state, Michigan, it was the last year on record Detroit Tigers won the World Series following a 35-and-5 record of their first 40 games of that MLB season. That seemed to overshadow the 1984 United States presidential election in my area of the country. My memory of the 1984 presidential election was no one was betting on Walter Mondale to unseat Ronald Reagan because not many seemed overly interested in who the Democrats would nominate in the first place.
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pbrower2a
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« Reply #19 on: May 14, 2015, 10:53:49 AM »

I was 13 that year. In my home state, Michigan, it was the last year on record Detroit Tigers won the World Series following a 35-and-5 record of their first 40 games of that MLB season. That seemed to overshadow the 1984 United States presidential election in my area of the country. My memory of the 1984 presidential election was no one was betting on Walter Mondale to unseat Ronald Reagan because not many seemed overly interested in who the Democrats would nominate in the first place.

That was more to be remembered -- maybe the best team to have ever won a World Series that did not have a future Baseball Hall of Fame (Alan Trammell belongs in the Hall of Fame even if he was the fourth-best shortstop of his time; the others were Cal Ripken, Ozzie Smith, and Robin Yount. The 1980s had some great middle-infielders. Lou Whitaker was unpopular among baseball writers because he 'failed' to salute the American flag. He was a Jehovah's Witness, and Jehovah's Witnesses consider any salute to a flag an act of idolatry. I may think a salute to the US flag harmless, but following one's religious convictions is honorable in contrast to betting on baseball games, throwing games, or using performance-enhancing drugs to extend a career.

But I digress.     
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SingingAnalyst
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« Reply #20 on: May 14, 2015, 02:32:48 PM »

I was 13 that year. In my home state, Michigan, it was the last year on record Detroit Tigers won the World Series following a 35-and-5 record of their first 40 games of that MLB season. That seemed to overshadow the 1984 United States presidential election in my area of the country. My memory of the 1984 presidential election was no one was betting on Walter Mondale to unseat Ronald Reagan because not many seemed overly interested in who the Democrats would nominate in the first place.

That was more to be remembered -- maybe the best team to have ever won a World Series that did not have a future Baseball Hall of Fame (Alan Trammell belongs in the Hall of Fame even if he was the fourth-best shortstop of his time; the others were Cal Ripken, Ozzie Smith, and Robin Yount. The 1980s had some great middle-infielders. Lou Whitaker was unpopular among baseball writers because he 'failed' to salute the American flag. He was a Jehovah's Witness, and Jehovah's Witnesses consider any salute to a flag an act of idolatry. I may think a salute to the US flag harmless, but following one's religious convictions is honorable in contrast to betting on baseball games, throwing games, or using performance-enhancing drugs to extend a career.

But I digress.     
I agree and think the World Series euphoria may have contributed to Reagan's huge win in the state especially in metro Detroit.
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SingingAnalyst
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« Reply #21 on: May 14, 2015, 02:35:31 PM »

askew was pro life.  pro lifers dont do well in democrat primaries.


Zing!   

Okay thanks for all your input.  I didn't realize Askew was not as progressive as I had thought.   Being anti-choice would have been a disqualifier for me, too.   
I remember that. It was reported that he was anti-abortion but supported the ERA, which I found interesting.
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sg0508
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« Reply #22 on: May 15, 2015, 11:02:35 AM »

Mondale, while having the label as an "Old Democrat", made this line over and over like a broken record:

Tax cuts for the wealthy will erode the middle class and lead to disproportionality of wealth and power (paraphrased).

Back in '84, people laughed at him.  Look where we are now folks.
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Sumner 1868
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« Reply #23 on: May 15, 2015, 11:14:48 AM »

Mondale, while having the label as an "Old Democrat", made this line over and over like a broken record:

Tax cuts for the wealthy will erode the middle class and lead to disproportionality of wealth and power (paraphrased).

Back in '84, people laughed at him.  Look where we are now folks.

Actually, the polling at the time suggested the vast majority of Americans agreed with him, but for many it wasn't enough to shift their votes. Lots of cognitive dissonance in 1984.
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DS0816
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« Reply #24 on: May 15, 2015, 03:03:10 PM »

I was 13 that year. In my home state, Michigan, it was the last year on record Detroit Tigers won the World Series following a 35-and-5 record of their first 40 games of that MLB season. That seemed to overshadow the 1984 United States presidential election in my area of the country. My memory of the 1984 presidential election was no one was betting on Walter Mondale to unseat Ronald Reagan because not many seemed overly interested in who the Democrats would nominate in the first place.

That was more to be remembered -- maybe the best team to have ever won a World Series that did not have a future Baseball Hall of Fame (Alan Trammell belongs in the Hall of Fame even if he was the fourth-best shortstop of his time; the others were Cal Ripken, Ozzie Smith, and Robin Yount. The 1980s had some great middle-infielders. Lou Whitaker was unpopular among baseball writers because he 'failed' to salute the American flag. He was a Jehovah's Witness, and Jehovah's Witnesses consider any salute to a flag an act of idolatry. I may think a salute to the US flag harmless, but following one's religious convictions is honorable in contrast to betting on baseball games, throwing games, or using performance-enhancing drugs to extend a career.

But I digress.     
I agree and think the World Series euphoria may have contributed to Reagan's huge win in the state especially in metro Detroit.

The Republicans carried Michigan very close to their national numbers in 1984 and 1988. And when Bill Clinton won a Democratic pickup of Michigan, while he unseated George Bush in Election 1992, the state still came close to the national margin. That period of three election cycles gave Michigan its overrated "swing state" status that still tends to get mentioned among Corporate News Media. In truth, Michigan has never notched beyond six cycles in consecutively backing presidential winners. (And those six were with the winning Republicans from 1860 to 1880.) A 1984 Michigan was more about Detroit Tigers than that year's presidential election.
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