If Carter loses in 1976...

[Zioneer]

What probably happens throughout the next few years of Ford's presidency, and what happens in 1980? Who runs on the Democratic side?

 

[THE OBSERVER]

Jeff Greenfield has Gary Hart.

 

[Garrison]

What probably happens throughout the next few years of Ford's presidency, and what happens in 1980? Who runs on the Democratic side?

Sorry but a Ford presidency means Watergate happened and I cannot imagine how Carter could lose when Ford is dragging that baggage around. Now if there's no Watergate maybe the Republican nominee in 1976 has a chance but it won't be Ford.

 

[Zioneer]

Sorry but a Ford presidency means Watergate happened and I cannot imagine how Carter could lose when Ford is dragging that baggage around. Now if there's no Watergate maybe the Republican nominee in 1976 has a chance but it won't be Ford.

Well, Carter nearly lost anyway, as the percentages in many states were incredibly close, so it wouldn't be that hard for Carter to lose to him.

 

[Paul V McNutt]

I think if Ford did not say there is no Soviet domination in Eastern Europe he would have won by carrying the close states of Hawaii and Ohio. With the bad. economy and the hostage crisis Reagan loses in 1980, I assume to Walter Mondale.

 

[The Red]

Sorry but a Ford presidency means Watergate happened and I cannot imagine how Carter could lose when Ford is dragging that baggage around. Now if there's no Watergate maybe the Republican nominee in 1976 has a chance but it won't be Ford.

You might want to check how close the OTL 1976 election was, the change of a few thousand votes in Ohio and Wisconsin would have given it to Ford.

 

[John Fredrick Parker]

Here's something that might help...

 

[Heavy]

Would Ford still be eligible for 1980?

 

[freivolk]

Would Ford still be eligible for 1980?

No, he wouldn´t.

 

[obamaslovechild]

How come Ford couldn't run in 80. LBJ finished JFK's last year and could of run in 69

 

[MrHuman]

How come Ford couldn't run in 80. LBJ finished JFK's last year and could of run in 69

If you serve more than six years you're ineligible to run for reelection.

 

[V-J]

How come Ford couldn't run in 80.

Because if you've served more than half of a term, in addition to your second, that's your limit under the US constitution. LBJ became president after January '63, which was the half-way point of Kennedy's term, hence he was eligible to run in '68. Ford became president less than half-way through Nixon's '72 term.

 

[Workable Goblin]

How come Ford couldn't run in 80. LBJ finished JFK's last year and could of run in 69

The 22nd Amendment:

Section 1. No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once. But this article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President when this article was proposed by the Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office of President, or acting as President, during the term within which this article becomes operative from holding the office of President or acting as President during the remainder of such term.

(Section 2 is boilerplate about the ratification process). Ford went from VP to President on August 9th, 1974, and his normal term ended on January 20th, 1977. The two year mark was passed on August 9th, 1976--before the election. So Ford is ineligible to run for a second term of his own.

(The interesting question is whether a VP-turned-President who went over the two-year mark in the time between the election and the inauguration counts as having spent more than two years in the Presidential office for the purposes of the 22nd Amendment, but that's not relevant here).