Sound familiar?
And who can blame them? Carter's economic policies had produced a 21% interest rate, a 17% mortgage rate and a 15% inflation rate in the coveted "hat trick" of presidential incompetence. His brilliant strategic ploy of abandoning the Shah of Iran had led to a 154% spike in oil prices and Islamic lunatics seizing our embassy and holding Americans hostage in Tehran, where they remained for 444 days, until Carter was safely removed from office.With all that going for them - plus that old Mondale magic -Democrats were dumbstruck that they lost the 1980 election. What other than a dirty trick could explain it?
I guess I should warn some of you - this is Ann Coulter. So I'll keep it short.
In other words, liberals believed the Islamo-fascist cutthroats who had been toying with Carter like a cat with a ball of yarn wanted Carter replaced by someone stronger, like Reagan. How else to explain the fact that, minutes after Reagan's inauguration, the hostages were released?
A more plausible theory was given in a Jeff MacNelly cartoon showing Khomeini reading a telegram aloud: "It's from Ronald Reagan. It must be about one of the Americans in the Den of Spies, but I don't recognize the name. It says 'Remember Hiroshima.'"
At the conclusion of the House's investigation, Rep. Lee Hamilton, the House Democrat who had chaired the October Surprise Task Force, wrote an op-ed in The New York Times, saying: "The task force report concluded there was virtually no credible evidence to support the accusations."
On the same day, the Times published a rebuttal op-ed by Gary Sick.
And that, kids, is how you concede a presidential election with grace and dignity.