Just some smart moves by Reagan-Bush 1980. 
True, a lot of Reagans ad's were great. His 'Morning in America' ad's are probably some of the best political ad's ever.
Wellstones were pretty good too.
'Morning in America' was from 1984, not 1980. In 1980, voters felt that they were in the middle of a very black night.
Kennedy did not support Reagan, but he wasn't heartbroken to see Carter lose. He gave very lukewarm, nominal support to Carter, after losing his bid for the 1980 Democratic nomination, but he even extracted a price for that support -- he refused to make a commitment to make any speeches on behalf of Carter until Carter agreed in writing to help him pay off the debt from his losing bid for the nomination. There was no love lost between the two men.
Kennedy's positions in 1980 were very different from Reagan's, needless to say -- he supported gasoline rationing, and wage and price controls. Neither Carter nor Reagan supported either of these measures.
