1980, 2012 presidential campaigns show parallels

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Investors Business Daily:

An increasing number of parallels are being drawn by the press, pundits and campaign operatives between the 2012 presidential campaign and the race in 1980 between Ronald Reagan and President Jimmy Carter.

When looking back at the Reagan/Carter campaign and the circumstances of the nation in 1980, it's easy to argue from a distance that "that was then, this is now." In 1980, the heroes of the Star Wars movies were fighting to "restore freedom," Pac-Man was released, CNN was born and John Lennon was shot.

But the similarities between the two presidential contests and the nation's challenges just over three decades later are powerful enough to bear serious watching.

First, the obvious. The Romney campaign, seizing the opportunity of similarity, has already borrowed Reagan's famous mantra — "Are you better off than you were four years ago?" — to drive the campaign narrative.

The question, planted in the minds of the American people by Reagan in his closing summation during the Oct. 28 debate with Carter, closed the deal in his favor.

Until then, many American voters had bought into the one dimensional, bathetic caricature of him created by the Carter campaign similar to the brush strokes used by the Democrats to paint Romney as an out-of-touch elitist during the summer of 2012.