The inspirational New England senator with the mane of silver hair had won the support of a rising generation of the American left. He came to his party’s convention that year having won nearly a dozen big states, millions of votes and more than 1,000 delegates. He had railed passionately against his opponent, a divisive establishment candidate who never quite won the trust or adoration of the party faithful.
This wasn’t Bernie Sanders, but Ted Kennedy. And Jimmy Carter, the man who defeated Kennedy in the 1980 Democratic primaries, never quite healed the Democratic Party’s divisions that year. He went on to defeat that November, against a Republican candidate who had been trailing by double digits and who most pundits had dismissed as a washed-up TV star and an ill-informed joke.
