As the 2016 presidential election draws to a close, some cannot help but wonder, are all elections this crazy? On October 29, 1976, The News ran a piece titled “Election Blues.” Here is a condensed version.
On Tuesday, the American electorate will decide the direction to which our great nation will head in the next four years to come… Although marked by the first Presidential debates since 1960 and by the first Vice Presidential debates ever, this year’s campaign has not proved to be too fruitful.
The Presidential debates epitomize the lack of constructiveness in the campaign. Both candidates have given almost “programmed” responses to most of the questions posted by the reporters. In addition, these confrontations have been rather fruitless, for Ford and Carter have spent too much time dealing personal insults to one another. Good examples…would be Ford’s blaming of Carter for the mistakes of the Democratic Congress and Carter’s attempts to link Ford with the Watergate scandal.
Therefore, the best way to describe this year’s race for the Presidency might be “negative.” Once again the majority of the American people are faced with the choice of deciding between the lesser of two evils…
What is there to look forward to after 1976? Capitol Hill is undergoing a major change in this critical election year. One can expect new faces in 1980. The most unfortunate illness of Senator Humphrey, together with the political “retirements” of Vice-President Rockefeller and former governor Reagan, as well as the resignation of the Speaker of the House and Senate leaders, all indicate that the era of Vietnam and Watergate is nearing its end.
As a slight consolation, one must realize that at lease Ford and Carter are both “democrats” in the true sense of the word. Even a Georgian victory would most likely dispel all possibilities of the realization of George Orwell’s most frightening prophecy.
