Lynch at Large

During another outstanding Wednesday Wake-Up on KARK-TV Channel 4, there was extensive discussion of one of the greatest living Americans, former president Jimmy Carter.

As you probably have heard by now, there has been some controversy over Carter's (correct) statement that the current president is the worst president. This very intelligent administration has spent a surprising amount of energy telling everybody who will listen that Carter is irrelevant.

OK. I'll bite. If he is irrelevant, why are they talking about him at all?

But let's put logic aside and get back on this morning's TV program in which I ended up making reference to the presidential election lf 1980. I said something to the effect that Reagan barely beat Carter.

I let Wikipedia decide all important disputes.

The election was held on November 4, 1980. Reagan beat Carter by almost ten percent in the popular vote. Republicans also gained control of the Senate for the first time in twenty-five years on Reagan's coattails. The electoral college vote was a landslide, with 489 votes (representing 44 states) for Reagan and 49 for Carter (representing 6 states and the District of Columbia). John Anderson won no electoral votes, but got 5,720,060 popular votes.

Therefore, it was by no means the biggest defeat in presidential history. 10% in the popular vote is not so awful, especially when we consider the presence of "third-party" candidate John Anderson.

That's my story and O'm stickin' with it.