Kinda wonder what the political landscape with the independents looked like this far out when Reagan and Carter were on the ticket.
Tobster, it was a different landscape, but more importantly the Media/News Outlet was MUCH different.
Concerning the Landscape, the "Independents" were not the force that they are today. There were more Democrats than Republicans, but the Democrat Party (unlike today) had a few more Conservative Polititians & alot of Conservative leaning voters (Reagan Democrats) who were basically blue collar principled, hard working folks who have since left the party & we have the uberlibs now who are the Socialist Demoncraps along with a few confused.
Concerning the Media, we did not have Cable News to speak of, we had the 3 networks who
already were in the more Liberal Est. Demoncrap camp. They gave us poll numbers & opinions that could not be opposed on a wide scale basis because they had the only mic.
Because of that, we were told that Carter was ahead of Reagon until just before the election, they started pulling back a little at that point to save face. It has been said since that time that Carter's handlers were telling him to start packing his bags while the big 3 networks told us he was going to win.
People like myself who remember this have no problem understanding why the Demoncraps push the "fairness doctrine."