I was an Anderson volunteer in both the GOP primary and general election. It was a different era. As there is today, there was dissatisfaction with both major party nominees; Carter was very unpopular, and there were great concerns about Reagan's age. But the difference is that polarization had not set in to the degree that it has now, so there was more room for a good chunk of the electorate to either cross the aisle or vote for a third-party candidate. I don't think there's a current Republican, or Democrat for that matter, who could appeal sufficiently to the other party as well as their own to do as well as Anderson did -- and in the end that was only 7%. (Perot, of course, beat that by a good margin, but he was a true outsider and didn't have any party labels to shake off.)
I thought the main concern with Reagan was that he was too conservative to win, not his age.
At least that's what a couple of friends have told me who also voted in that election.
