June 20: Reagan give Wynette big kiss

On this date in History ... June 20, 1983:

Ronald Reagan gives a speech at a Republican Fundraising Dinner in the (Jackson) Mississippi Coliseum where he tells one of his many humorous stories, this one about a Republican campaigning in Democratic territory. (see clip). Reagan is said to have been a big fan of Tammy Wynette who sang at this fundraiser. The President gave the country singer a big kiss, and a photo of it ended up in The Globe.

April 4: President William Henry Harrison

On this date in History ..... 1841:



 

Pres. William Henry Harrison dies of pneumonia 32 days after becoming President. His list of “memorables” include:




·         His term of President is the shortest term served by any president.

·     He was the 1^st president to die in office.

·         His inaugural speech of 2 hrs (and that’s the edited version!) holds the record for the longest inaugural speech in U.S. history. (Hmmm … the record for the longest speech and the record for the shortest time in office.  Ain’t that a kick!)

·         He was the oldest president to take office at 68 years old (a record that would hold until Ronald Reagan).

·         He was the last president to be born before the U.S. Declaration of Independence.

·         He became the first congressional delegate from the Northwest Territory.

·         He served as governor of the Indiana Territory and worked to open American Indian lands to white settlers.

·         His grandson, Benjamin Harrison, from Indiana, would become president, making them the only grandfather/grandson presidents in history.

.

November 6: Reagan Wins by a Landslide

On this date in History .... 1984:

Ronald Reagan wins re-election by a landslide.  He won:

·         over 97% of the electoral vote, (525 out of 538)
·         58.8% to Mondale’s 40.6% of the popular vote, (54M to 37M)
·         49 states
·         was only the 2^nd President to take 49 states (Nixon was the 1^st in 1972).
·         It was the last election a Republican carried every Northeast state.
·         No candidate since has ever matched or passed his electoral result.

In the 1980 election (Reagan v. Carter), pre-election polls showed Carter 45% to Reagan’s 39%.  Reagan won by a 10% lead in the popular vote and took 91% of the electoral vote.

Mondale won only Wash DC and his home state of Minnesota, but the win in MN was less than 3800 votes (a winning margin of 0.18% or 0.0018).  It was the worst electoral defeat of any Democratic Party candidate in history. Despite Mondale’s tactic of choosing the first woman for the V.P. slot, 55% of women voted for Reagan.

The 1984 Republican Convention was the only time a Vice Presidential roll call was taken concurrently with the Presidential roll call.  It was the last time in history that the V.P. of either party was nominated by a roll call vote.

The Democratic Convention of that year is often referred to as “the closest in two generations” and the most recent election in which the nomination of a party’s candidate has gone all the way to the convention.  The three top candidates were Walter Mondale, Gary Hart, and Jesse Jackson.

While Jackson was a serious contender throughout the primaries, his off the cuff remark in which he referred to the Jewish population as “Hymies” and referred to New York as “Hymietown” derailed the rest of his campaign in spite of the apology issued by Jackson.

When Hart and Mondale got to the convention, Mondale was about 40 votes short of what he needed to cinch the nomination.  The votes from the super-delegates gave him the numbers he needed to go up against Reagan in the presidential election.

When Reagan was asked in early December 1984 what he wanted for Christmas, he joked "Well, Minnesota would have been nice."