The first presidential election I covered in detail in this space saw Democrat Jimmy Carter of Georgia edge out then-President Gerald Ford of Michigan by a narrow margin in 1976. A reader had asked the Informer when Jim Beam was going to write about politics since his column was called “People and Politics.”
I was happy to oblige and haven’t stopped writing about politics since.
Arsene Pujo, the first U.S. congressman from Lake Charles, was the subject of my first column in 1962, my second year at the American Press. However, regular columns didn’t start until 1975.
Carter had an outspoken mother, and so did I. And perhaps that is where I got my gut instincts to “tell it like it is.” My mother was outspoken all her life, and I cut my teeth on her saying whatever came to her mind.
I wasn’t happy that Carter selected U.S. Sen. Walter Mondale of Minnesota as his vice presidential running mate because of his liberalism. Ford picked Sen. Bob Dole of Kansas, a World War II hero. This is how I ended one of those columns about the election:
“For now, though, we have to be content with the choices they have left us — a peanut farmer, a liberal, a president and a man whose name makes me think about pineapple.”
The Ford-Carter debates, in my view, were a waste of time. I said Independent candidate Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota was the clear winner because he wasn’t allowed to take part.
Supporters of both men said they won the debate, but what they actually did was create more confusion about what the presidential race was all about.
Most presidential elections are the same. Promises are made to all groups in American society that are seldom delivered. Candidates tell conservative audiences they will return government to the people and promise liberals more social programs that will bring justice wherever injustice exists.
I said in October of 1976 that, “One of these days the American voters are going to be blessed with a candidate who really tells it like it is. He or she will be the individual who can stand up before a crowd — whatever its background or occupation — and tell the truth, regardless of whether it hurts.”
Does that sound like someone we all know in 2016?
Carter captured 297 electoral votes to 240 for Ford, which was called the closest presidential election since 1916. Carter polled 40.8 million votes to 39 million for Ford. Carter carried 23 states and Ford carried 27.
I admitted after the 1976 election that I had voted for Ford. He was an OK guy with a first-rate wife named Betty and a nice-looking family. And I said how could you not like a guy who could fall down airplane steps, bump his head on a helicopter and entertain us by getting caught in other clumsy situations.
No one in my family, including my dad and my siblings, was happy to hear that I had voted for a Republican.
Carter has turned out to be a great humanitarian, but his presidency resulted in his embarrassing defeat at the hands of Republican Ronald Reagan four years later. I pleaded with Carter early in 1980 to not do us any more favors, and said the little people of this country had gotten the shaft so many times it hurt to sit down.
The president’s energy policies were completely out of whack. He insisted companies use coal to generate electricity just a year or two before the country enjoyed a natural gas bonanza.
Carter’s inability to end the Iranian hostage situation turned out to be his downfall. We had backed down to the Russians so often it became standard procedure. The situation was much like the one President Lyndon Johnson faced when he declined to run again in 1968 because of his inability to come to grips with the Vietnam war.
A Carter legacy that I experienced was a 13¾ percent mortgage interest rate on a home we purchased in 1982. The rate went down one percentage point for the next five years when Reagan was president.
However, give Carter the credit he deserves for bringing peace between the Israelis and Egyptians, his major accomplishment. He has also been a great ambassador since leaving office.
A number of readers asked me who I thought would win the 1980 election, and I missed big time. I thought Carter might squeeze by, and he lost by a landslide. He did carry Calcasieu Parish and New Orleans and Reagan carried Louisiana, as I had predicted, but that was small consolation.
Reagan picked up 480 electoral votes to only 49 for Carter. Reagan carried 44 states, and Carter carried only 6.
Everyone gave me a hard time because I also missed some local races. The late Steve Presley, our production superintendent, offered me words of encouragement before election night was over.
“Considering your prediction and the Reagan landslide, don’t get up early in the morning,” he said. “There won’t be any syndicates calling to offer you a job.”
A woman in the circulation department said, “You didn’t do so hot, did you? When you miss the big one, you might as well miss them all.”
My dad said, “Well, I took your advice and lost all but one vote yesterday.”
I’ve done better in subsequent elections, but avoid making predictions whenever you can. Crow doesn’t taste good.
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