I think this election often gets overlooked in just how close it was. While it was not a 2000 type election it was intriguing in its result. This election has always really fascinated me, not in it being hot button both men campaigned against each other with class and respect but in how tight the count was. Ford really came so close to winning after being around 30 points down at the time of Carter's DNC. Had less then 50,000 votes flipped in Wisconsin and Ohio or Mississippi and Ohio Ford would have won his own elected full term while losing the national popular vote.
Also consider how a uniform swing of 1% for Carter putting his popular vote margin to only 4% would had been enough to give him 410 ev's. Its probably the last time where democrats had a huge structural advantage in winning more ev's with just small popular vote swings.