1980 Presidential Election

[Robespierre's Jaw]

Would you consider the 1980 Presidential Election to be a landslide?

Sure the 1980 Presidential Election might have been a landslide of epic proportions for the Reagan/Bush ticket electorally speaking, but if you think about it more than half the country was decided by less than 1-2 percent of the vote. And Ronald Reagan managed to win half the country, or should I say a vast majority of the country with the exceptions of Minnesota, Rhode Island, Georgia, District of Columbia, West Virginia and Maryland.

[CPT MikeyMike]

On election night 1980, there was a CBS Analyst (I forget the name right now) that best summed it up: Reagan's popular vote was wide but not deep. However, Reagan beat Carter by nearly 10% of the popular vote and won 489 electoral votes. The election was an embarrassment for the incumbent so yes, I think it was a landslide.

Here is the clip link I talked about - at 1:46 begins the "wide but not deep" comment. I disagree that 60% is the benchmark for a landslide.

[MasterJedi]

More or less yes.

[Kaine for Senate '18]

Yes, since Carter was an incumbent.  Losing by 10%, and getting only 49 EV makes it a landslide for Reagan.

[Iosif is a COTHO]

He won 10 states by less than 3 points...

[go85bucks10]

It was a landslide. Look at the math; is there really and argument that it wasn't?

[J. J.]

It was a landslide basically because of the raw vote margin of Reagan over Carter, the breadth of the victory, and the general Republican gains in the House and Senate.