were left with the impression that the president had
been reduced to desperately flailing away at his op-
ponent.
Carter’s initial reluctance to debate also cost him:
In effect, he boycotted the September 21, 1980, de-
bate in Baltimore, Maryland, by refusing to partici-
pate if independent candidate Anderson was al-
lowed to appear. As a result, the first debate pitted
Anderson against Reagan. Reagan coolly dominated
the debate, decimating any hope that Anderson
might have had for victory, and lunged further ahead
in the polls. Reagan agreed to debate Carter one-on-
one in Cleveland, Ohio, on October 28. Again, Rea-
gan proved to be the better speaker, earning his
nickname, the Great Communicator. He managed
from the start both to aggrandize his own positions
and to belittle Carter, who was unable to retake the
initiative. Reagan projected an image of unflappa-
ble, calm reassurance. Carter, on the other hand,
seemed angry and erratic.
It soon became clear that Carter had only one
hope of victory, which was nicknamed by Reagan’s
camp the “October surprise.” If the Iranian hostages
were to be released in the final days before the elec-
tion, it was generally believed that the resulting swell
of good feeling for the Carter administration could
easily have resulted in enough of a momentum shift
to deliver Carter a second term. In the event, how-
ever, the hostages remained in captivity through
election day, and Reagan won a landslide victory
over the incumbent; winning the electoral vote, 489
to 49. The popular vote tallied 43,903,230 for Rea-324 Elections in the United States, 1980 The Eighties in America
Presidential candidate Ronald Reagan, center right, campaigns with his wife, Nancy, in Columbia, South Carolina, on October 10,
1980.(Courtesy, Ronald Reagan Library/NARA)