August 12, 1980: The Democratic National Convention is underway at Madison Square Garden in New York. In 1976, it also met at The Garden, nominating former Governor Jimmy Carter of Georgia for President, and Senator Walter Mondale of Minnesota for Vice President. It was a highly successful Convention, the Democrats' least contentious since 1936, and spurred the Carter-Mondale ticket on to victory in November.
Four years later, it was the same venue, and the same ticket. But so much had changed. The Iran Hostage Crisis dragged on. Inflation and interest rates were rising. In each case, with no end in sight. Carter had enforced an American boycott of the Olympic Games in Moscow, in response to the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan -- in hindsight, the right thing to do; but, at the time, a highly unpopular decision.
He had even signed signs Proclamation 4771, in response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. It retroactively re-established the Selective Service registration requirement for all male U.S. citizens between the ages of 18 and 26, born on or after January 1, 1960.
In other words, it was a first step toward reinstituting the military draft, which President Richard Nixon had eliminated on January 27, 1973, at the end of the Vietnam War. Of all the reasons that Carter lost the election, this is one of the less-remembered, but most important. He essentially threw away the votes of anyone subject to the bill.
The month before, the Republican Party had held their Convention. They had a lot of guts, as a racially divisive, union-busting party, holding it in a majority-black city known for its labor unions, Detroit, in a a building named for a black man, the Joe Louis Arena.
For President, they had nominated former Governor of California, and former actor, Ronald Reagan, who had seemed like his time had come and gone in 1976. For Vice President, they had nominated George H.W. Bush, former Congressman from Texas, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, former Director of the CIA, and former Chairman of the Republican National Committee. They were absolutely united.
The Democrats were not. Despite the fact that, for what turned out to be the only time between 1964 and 1996, the Presidency was held by a Democrat running for re-election, Senator Edward M. "Ted" Kennedy of Massachusetts -- brother of a former President, brother of a noted Presidential candidate, both of them assassinated -- made what turned out to be his only run for President. He didn't think Carter was strong enough on liberal issues like the cities, labor rights, and health care, issues on which he had excelled in drafting legislation for the Senate.
Despite coming from a State next door, Carter beat Kennedy solidly in the New Hampshire Primary, and wrapped up the nomination fairly early. But as things got worse on the job for Carter, something interesting happened: Even though Democratic Primary voters knew Kennedy couldn't catch Carter in Delegates, they started voting for Kennedy anyway, as a protest. This weakened Carter further.
Kennedy spoke on the 2nd night of the Convention. For a moment, people forgot all about his flaws -- the marital infidelities, the drinking, the Chappaquiddick incident of 1969, and his embarrassing interview with Roger Mudd the preceding November, when he couldn't seem to properly answer the question of why he was running -- and saw him as he had hoped to be seen all along, as the heir to the Kennedy legacy.
After a few opening platitudes, he went after the opposition:
The 1980 Republican Convention was awash with crocodile tears for our economic distress, but it is by their long record, and not their recent words, that you shall know them.
The same Republicans who are talking about the crisis of unemployment have nominated a man who once said, and I quote, "Unemployment insurance is a prepaid vacation plan for freeloaders." And that nominee is no friend of labor.
The same Republicans who are talking about the problems of the inner cities have nominated a man who said, and I quote, "I have included in my morning and evening prayers every day the prayer that the Federal Government not bail out New York." And that nominee is no friend of this city and our great urban centers across this nation.
The same Republicans who are talking about security for the elderly have nominated a man who said, just four years ago, that "Participation in Social Security should be made voluntary." And that nominee is no friend of the senior citizens of this nation.
The same Republicans who are talking about preserving the environment have nominated a man who, last year, made the preposterous statement, and I quote, "Eighty percent of our air pollution comes from plants and trees." And that nominee is no friend of the environment.
And the same Republicans who are invoking Franklin Roosevelt have nominated a man who said in 1976, and these are his exact words, "Fascism was really the basis of the New Deal." And that nominee, whose name is Ronald Reagan, has no right to quote Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
For those few minutes, in spite of his Boston accent, Edward Moore Kennedy sounded like not just the proper heir to John Fitzgerald Kennedy, but the proper heir to Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He closed with words that not only invoked his brothers, but made him sound like them:
Someday, long after this Convention, long after the signs come down, and the crowds stop cheering, and the bands stop playing, may it be said of our campaign that we kept the faith. May it be said of our Party in 1980 that we found our faith again.
May it be said of us, both in dark passages and in bright days, in the words of Tennyson that my brothers quoted and loved, and that have special meaning for me now: "I am a part of all that I have met. Too much is taken, much abides. That which we are, we are: One equal temper of heroic hearts, strong in will to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."
For me, a few hours ago, this campaign came to an end. For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die!
For a 10-year-old boy, growing up within an hour's bus ride of Midtown Manhattan, who had heard his parents wax poetic about Jack and Bobby, but only knew them himself as historic figures already dead, this was a taste of what they knew well.
Maybe "my Kennedy" was Teddy, but, after this, every 4 years, up to and including 2008, Teddy -- along with Jesse Jackson, Mario Cuomo, and sometimes Bill Bradley -- could always be counted on to deliver the goods at a Democratic Convention.
Unless you were working for Jimmy Carter on this occasion. Carter's White House Chief of Staff, Hamilton Jordan, wrote in his memoir:
For a long year, Ted Kennedy had been the enemy... but it was difficult for me to see him in the Convention setting without thinking of his family and its tragedies... Ted Kennedy’s words triggered open the floodgates of memories: Camelot, magic rhetoric, and the shock of the assassinations.
Carter's acceptance speech on Thursday night was terrible. He messed up the name of the late Democratic icon Hubert Horatio Humphrey, calling him "Hubert Horatio Hornblower." He mentioned his move to bring back the draft, and became the 1st sitting President ever to get booed at his own Party's Convention.
(A lot of people switched their votes to Ronald Reagan, who didn't say he would keep the Proclamation; or stayed home, because they thought it made both candidates "war hawks." In 2022, the Proclamation is still in effect: While we have never again had a draft, every male citizen has to register when he turns 18. My 18th birthday fell on a Friday, and I registered at the East Brunswick Post Office the following Monday.)
When Carter's speech was over, he sought Kennedy out, to do the traditional gesture of the victorious candidate with all the defeated candidates, arms raised, united in victory. As Ted worked his way to the podium, shaking hands with First Lady Rosalynn Carter, First Daughter Amy Carter, Vice President Mondale, Second Lady Joan Mondale, and pretty much everybody he could reach, Carter just stood there, as if he were a foreign dignitary waiting for the President of the United States to come down the steps of Air Force One. Kennedy was the one who looked like the President at that moment.
Over the next few minutes, 5 times, Carter and Kennedy could be seen shaking hands. But not once would Kennedy raise his and Carter's arms, nor would he allow Carter to do so. Carter didn't get the gesture he so desperately needed.
Few political figures have been identified with sincere Christianity as much as Jimmy Carter. But Ted Kennedy was one political figure he found it very difficult to forgive.
Just as, 4 years earlier, Republicans heard Reagan's speech after Ford's, and thought it, Democrats had seen Carter and Kennedy, separately and together, and left the Convention hall, or turned off their TV sets, thinking, "We nominated the wrong guy."
Did they? Would Kennedy have beaten Reagan in 1980? No: The Republicans' campaign slime machine, which stayed in low gear against Carter, because it didn't need to go any higher, would have taken Ted's nostalgia-driven popularity into account, and harped on his personal failings, as well as calling his liberal stands outdated and out of touch.
Indeed, one prominent commercial showed two men in a car, the driver looking like Ted's Boston ally, Speaker of the House Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill, the passenger looking like a typical lobbyist in a cheap suit. They were lost, and the lobbyist suggested pulling over to a gas station for directions, and the driver refused, until they were in the middle of nowhere, and out of gas. The voiceover said, "The Democrats are out of gas. Vote Republican."
Had Ted been the nominee, the Republicans would have portrayed him as a drunken, philandering Sixties liberal, out of touch with America, and Reagan would still have won in a landslide, though perhaps not as big of one as he got against Carter. And the Kennedy dream that Ted spoke of would have been as dead and buried as his brothers.
Instead, Carter took the loss, and the Kennedy dream lived on. Later Democrats tried to copy the Kennedys, especially Senator Gary Hart of Colorado, but he ended up copying the Kennedys in the bedroom as well. So did Governor Bill Clinton of Arkansas, but he handled the questions better, and was elected in 1992. Had Ted Kennedy been nominated in 1980, the next Democrat to get elected might have taken until 1992, or even later, and he certainly would not have been a Kennedy-style Democrat.
No member of the Kennedy family has made a serious run for President since. (UPDATE: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ran a 3rd-party campaign in 2024, but his run cannot be called "serious." He won 756,000 votes for 0.49 percent.)
*
August 12, 1980 was a Tuesday. Actress Maggie Lawson was born. And these games were played in Major League Baseball:
* The New York Yankees beat the Chicago White Sox, 8-4 at Yankee Stadium. Reggie Jackson went 1-for-5 with an RBI. Ruppert Jones hit a walkoff grand slam off Ed Farmer in the bottom of the 10th inning, to make a winning pitcher out of Doug Bird, in relief of Luis Tiant.
It didn't look right: Tiant had starred for the Yankees' arch-rivals, the Boston Red Sox; Bird had been a key figure in the Yankees' 1977 and 1978 Playoff wins over the Kansas City Royals; and Jones had been the 1st-ever All-Star for the expansion Seattle Mariners in 1977. He was a good pickup, but on August 25, he crashed into the center field fence in Oakland making a great catch, and was out for the season.
Just before the next season started, the Yankees traded him to the San Diego Padres, for a package that included his replacement in center field, Jerry Mumphrey, who helped the Yankees win the American League Pennant that year. Jones recovered enough to make the All-Star Game again in 1982, and helped the Detroit Tigers win the 1984 World Series and the California Angels win the 1986 AL Western Division title.
* The New York Mets beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 3-1 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. Steve Henderson hit a home run, in support of Ray Burris. Willie Stargell went 1-for-4.
* The Cleveland Indians beat the Texas Rangers, 2-1 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.
* The Boston Red Sox beat the Detroit Tigers, 5-4 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Carl Yastrzemski went 0-for-4. Mark Fidrych was the losing pitcher. It was the injury-riddled former phenom's 1st major league appearance of the season. He would make only 8 more that season, and never made another.
* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Chicago Cubs, 5-2 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. For the Phils, it was "Win Day": Steve Carlton went the distance for the victory, despite giving up a home run to the opposing pitcher, Mike Krukow. Mike Schmidt (who seemed to own Wrigley Field as much as the Wrigley family did) and Bob Boone (son of Ray, father of Bret and Aaron) hit home runs for the Phils. Pete Rose went 1-for-4.
* The Toronto Blue Jays swept a doubleheader from the Milwaukee Brewers, 3-1 and 5-4 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Paul Molitor went 0-for-3 with a walk in the opener, but did not play in the nightcap. Robin Yount went 2-for-3 with a home run, 2 walks and 2 RBIs in the nightcap, but did not play in the opener.
* The Minnesota Twins beat the Oakland Athletics, 3-2 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Rickey Henderson went 0-for-5.
* The Montreal Expos beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 4-0 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. Fred Norman allowed 4 hits over 6 shutout innings, and Elias Sosa and Woody Fryman allowed no hits the rest of the way.
* The Kansas City Royals beat the Baltimore Orioles, 4-3 at Royals Stadium (now Kauffman Stadium) in Kansas City. George Brett went 2-for-4 with a walk and an RBI. He was batting .389. He got up to .407 on August 26, and was still at .400 on September 19, but finished the season on October 4 at .390. Eddie Murray went 1-for-4.
* The Cincinnati Reds beat the San Diego Padres, 3-2 at San Diego Stadium (later Jack Murphy Stadium and Qualcomm Stadium). Johnny Bench went 0-for-3 with a walk. So did Dave Winfield.
* The Atlanta Braves beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 7-6 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.
* The San Francisco Giants beat the Houston Astros, 2-0 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Allen Ripley allowed 6 hits over 7 innings, and Gary Lavelle 1 over 2, to complete a 7-hit shutout.
* And the California Angels beat the Seattle Mariners, 9-6 at the Kingdome in Seattle.
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