Where was Jimmy Carter at this point in 1980?

The comparisons have already started, Bush's final year is looking alot like Jimmy Carters. Alot of what plagued Carter was due to just plane bad luck, but Bush has caused alot of this himself but blames it on the clenis.

and he still lost. Draw your own conclusion.

I reviewed a number of newspaper articles from the primary period and the period after Reagan won the primaries. Moderate GOPers were concerned that they would suffer a Goldwater-type defeat at the hands of the moderate Carter. Things of course turned out differently.

I know one thing, if I were a voter then, I would have supported Kennedy in the primaries--he could have defeated Reagan and John B. Anderson even said he would have pulled out to support Kennedy is he were to defeat Carter in the primaries.

Carter was weak, and people were dissatisfied. There are some parallels to the present.

I heard on TV. He went on to lose by a wide margin, of course. Bush Sr.'s approval rating was also high 30% to low 40% range 6 months before the election; he lost by a fair margin, I believe.

So Bush Jr. is ahead of both of them, but lower in approval rating of any winning candidate since WWII (I heard on TV that since WWII no Pres. has won when he was lower t han 50% approval rating six months before the election). But then, this is not just any year or any time, is it?

If the economy gets better (and it looks like it is getting somewhat better), and if Iraq gets better (could it get much worse?), his numbers might come up again. Oh veh.

It's those 18 battleground states that matter. I wonder what the poll numbers are just for those states? I live in Bush country, so essentially my vote doesn't count (although I will still vote).

I've been thinking that for a few weeks. Bush's boat has already hit the iceberg with the shitty revelations out of Iraq the past few weeks.