What if Reagan-Bush vs Hart-Glenn in '84?

[big bad fab]

Maybe another VP candidate for Hart?

[DanielX]

Reagan/Reagan, though it would've been closer.

[dazzleman]

Nobody could have beaten Reagan in 1984.  A majority of people had simply made up their minds to vote for him regardless of who the Democrats ran.

I voted for Reagan in 1984, and would have voted for him no matter who was running against him.

[Defarge]

Though I like Mondale more than Hart, I would have voted for most of the major Democratic candidates in '84. 

Doesen't change the fact that Reagan would have won no matter what.

[Lincoln Republican]

48 States Reagan/Bush
2 States Hart/Glenn

This is being generous to Hart/Glenn

Nobody, but nobody, could beat Reagan in 1984.

[A18]

"Reagan is the most popular figure in the history of the United States. No candidate we put up would have been able to beat Reagan this year." - Tip O'Neill after the election

[© tweed]

Reagan still wins easily, probably by 15%.  Still, Hart makes it a little closer and adds Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Maryland to his total.

[big bad fab]

Whom would Hart have picked as VP candidate in '84 ?
I suggested Glenn, but it doesn't seem probable.
Jesse Jackson would have been quite suicidal.
Gephardt? Biden? Bentsen?

[J. J.]

Reagan still wins easily, probably by 15%.  Still, Hart makes it a little closer and adds Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Maryland to his total.

I would add CO, HI, and possibly OH, WA, and WV to the list.  NY would have been close.

[Protect Trans Hoosiers]

Reagan still wins easily, probably by 15%.  Still, Hart makes it a little closer and adds Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Maryland to his total.

And take away MN, which went Mondale by fewer than 4000 votes.

[big bad fab]

I'm very surprised by the present result of this poll: what a Democratic forum!!!
Or, after all, Gary Hart would have had an opportunity to win....or, at least, to be not so ridiculous confronting the Gipper.

[Lincoln Republican]

Whom would Hart have picked as VP candidate in '84 ?
I suggested Glenn, but it doesn't seem probable.
Jesse Jackson would have been quite suicidal.
Gephardt? Biden? Bentsen?

Some other names you may want to consider as a VP candidate to run with Hart

Sen Dale Bumpers (AR), Sen Ernest Hollings (SC), Sen Lawton Chiles (FL), Sen Daniel Moynihan (NY), Sen Henry Jackson (WA).

[Wakie]

Reagan still wins in a landslide but I think he would have won MD, MA,  and RI but lost MN.

[Blank Slate]

Whom would Hart have picked as VP candidate in '84 ?
I suggested Glenn, but it doesn't seem probable.
Jesse Jackson would have been quite suicidal.
Gephardt? Biden? Bentsen?

Some other names you may want to consider as a VP candidate to run with Hart

Sen Dale Bumpers (AR), Sen Ernest Hollings (SC), Sen Lawton Chiles (FL), Sen Daniel Moynihan (NY), Sen Henry Jackson (WA).

Also possibly:  former Governor Reuben Askew, D. - FL  (because Askew had been quite popular and continued to be, and he had run for the nomination himself; he dropped out before most of the primaries)

I really think if it had been Bumpers, Hollings, Chiles and Askew it might have been a much more competitive election all around.  I would say with Chiles, Bumpers and Askew that Hart could have won a couple of states in the south (Florida, Georgia -- which wasn't nearly as Republican as it would become, in 1984, West Virginia and Arkansas might have all been in play) and been competitive still in the northeast and mid-west, although the Democrats could have still lost Minnesota, I would agree with.  Whether they would have won, might have depended on how well Reagan would have held up in the debates and in the fall of 1984 all around.  I also think with Hart and someone such as Askew, Chiles, Bumpers and Hollings, it would have been very difficult for Reagan to crow about the success of the summer Olympic athletes and use their performances as campaign fodder. 

Not everyone was bought and sold on Reagan, and polls conducted on election day and after the election even showed that the majority of the electorate (I do believe if I remember correctly somewhere like 63% of it) were saying that the Democrats were correct on the issues, it was that Mondale/Ferraro wasn't that great a ticket (and considered too liberal) to most Democrats or voters back then.  Remember we were talking about then, Reagan Democrats (who mainly used to be in most of the country, F.D.  Roosevelt, Truman and JFk/LBJ Democrats) who as late as 1976 voted in a Democratic President and Vice-President, Carter/Mondale.  I think it was plausible that the map of 1984, under a different scenario of a different Democratic candidate (especially one that might be considered a fresh face, such as Hart's would have been), might have resembled the 1976 election map (give or take a couple of ten states or so).   So, yes I'm still thinking it would have been a Reagan win, but much much closer.

[Jake]

Sen Dale Bumpers (AR), Sen Ernest Hollings (SC), Sen Lawton Chiles (FL), Sen Daniel Moynihan (NY), Sen Henry Jackson (WA).

Scoop was dead by 1984

[Blank Slate]

Sen Dale Bumpers (AR), Sen Ernest Hollings (SC), Sen Lawton Chiles (FL), Sen Daniel Moynihan (NY), Sen Henry Jackson (WA).

Scoop was dead by 1984

That was right, Scoop was dead, I'm glad I didn't mention him as running for Vice-President in my commentary about Hart vs. Reagan election of 1984.

[Tory]

Reagan/Reagan

[bhouston79]

About the only Republican that I would have considered voting for in the past 50 years or so would have Nelson Rockefellar, but he didn't even win the nomination.  With that said, I'm sure Reagan would have won handily, although it would have been slightly less of an embaressment for my party.  Here's the map:

Popular Vote
Reagan/Bush  55%
Hart/Glenn      44%

Electoral College
Reagan/Bush   468
Hart/Glenn        70

[Dr. Cynic]

Hart/Reagan

Reagan was the Republican FDR. No one could've beaten him.