Your article has no connection with your headline--your article only states why 2012 isn't 1980, and makes a factual error about Carter. What happened is that Reagan committed Iran Contra and Carter didn't and nobody was wise to that until after Reagan got elected...for his second term.
Many of us would have been even more enthusiastic about Reagan had we known about Iran Contra.
Oh, I know the radical peanut gallery would be. The saner and more plentiful average voter would have found that repulsive.