in 1984 U.S. presidential election, Mondale passes on 2nd debate because of non-apology from Reagan

[Dancing Fool]

CPD: October 11, 1984 Debate Transcript

Vice-President George Bush: “ . . . and for somebody to suggest, as our two opponents have, that these men died in shame – they better not tell the parents of those young marines. . . ”

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Walter “Fritz” Mondale suggested no such thing. He did say the Marines died in vain. Which is not the same thing at all.

He demanded an apology from Reagan.

Mondale didn’t get the apology. He went ahead with the 2nd debate anyway.

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What if Mondale takes the position, Then we don’t need this 2nd debate. And thereby sticks Reagan’s lousy 1st debate performance on him?

 

[Mad Bad Rabbit]

Reagan retained a 12 point lead in a Harris poll taken after the first debate, so he still trounces Mondale in November.

 

[Lalli]

Taking how massive victory Reagan had this hardly change much if anything.

 

[DougM]

Mondale was doomed no matter what short of Reagan shooting someone while being filmed.

 

[Ambusher11]

Yeah, Mondale was trailing far behind, which is why he isn't going to pass on the 2nd debate - he was hoping that another victory would narrow the gap further. Incidentally, "I will not make age an issue in this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and inexperience" aside, according to contemporary polling, it appears that the 2nd debate was more of a wash than a clear victory for Reagan. Of course, a wash was the last thing that Mondale needed!

 

[Dancing Fool]

Reagan won 59 percent of the popular vote in 1984.

If Mondale sticks Reagan with his lousy 1st performance AND makes the bombing of the Marine barracks in Lebanon from a year previously a bigger deal, maybe Reagan wins with only 55 percent.

I’m thinking Mondale didn’t want to do it. He didn’t want to make political hay out of a tragedy [even if we missed warning signs] and he didn’t want to work to discredit a President we were going to be stuck with anyway. That is, Mondale choose country over politics. Maybe.

 

[Dancing Fool]

The Oct. 1983 bombing of the Marine barracks in Lebanon was an incredibly big deal. Speaking as an American, we lost—

220 Marines

18 Navy Sailors

3 Army Soldiers

Minutes after this bombing, there was another bombing in which the French lost 58 military personnel who were also in Lebanon for the same peacekeeping mission.

Meaning, the above early casualty statistics would rise.

 

[SodaMan1996]

Mondale didn't stand a chance in 1984.

The economy was booming, and Americans were starting to feel optimistic about their country for the first time since the turmoil of the late 1960s and '70s. The fact that Mondale was Carter's vice president did not help him in the slightest.

Reagan famously lost only one state (Mondale's home state of Minnesota) in the 1984 election, and that was by less than 4,000 votes.

 

[Dancing Fool]

The economy was booming, and Americans were starting to feel optimistic about their country for the first time since the turmoil of the late 1960s and '70s.

The 2nd part is true. Americans were feeling good about their country including their economy. But in point of fact, the economy wasn’t booming.

The U.S. economy was slowly recovering from the serious 1982 Recession — with jobs s l o w l y coming back. At the time of the 1984 election, official unemployment was still above 7 percent.

I agree that being Jimmy Carter’s VP hurt Mondale.

 

[Dancing Fool]

1983 US embassy bombing in Beirut - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

There had been a bombing 6 months earlier in April 1983 in which 63 persons had been killed, including 17 Americans.

Now, there’s a somewhat difficult issue that if you beef up security at one Embassy, it might look like favoritism. I think you’ve got to just be unfair in this way. Start with the places which you judge are at the greatest threat, and move quickly.

 

[Dancing Fool]

Within weeks of the April bombing of the U.S.... - UPI Archives

Within weeks of the April bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, U.S. intelligence sources uncovered a similar plan to blow up the American Embassy in...

www.upi.com

August 24, 1983 —

“ . . . CBS said security in Kuwait was tightened and the United States secretly approached Rifaat Assad, the head of Syrian intelligence services and the brother of Syrian President Hafez Assad, to ask for help in heading off the planned attack on the Kuwait embassy.

“The reported plot to blow up the embassy in Kuwait was never carried out. CBS said intelligence sources do not know what role, if any, Rifaat Assad played in the incident.

“'But by arranging the release a short time later of David Dodge, the president of the American University in Beirut who had been kidnapped and held captive in Iran, Rifaat demonstrated his ability to deal with Iranian terrorists,' the CBS Pentagon reporter said.”

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But no gets credit for preventing the thing which doesn’t happen.

I am legit trying to cut the Reagan administration as much slack as I can. Because the 1980s is when I was a young man, and I’m kind of fond of the guy even though I disagree on some politics.

But all the same, allowing the bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, early Sunday morning Oct. 23, 1983, was a major failure.