I recall the evening that Scoop won the NY primary. When he was interviewed after the results were in, he came off as having an old-school mindset about politics. He used his TV time to repeat his strategy of focusing on the major states, but he failed to address the voters' concerns such as inflation and the weakening job market.
An impressive candidate was Birch Bayh. Here is an excerpt from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birch_Bayh :
On the eve of the January 19, 1976 Iowa caucuses, Bayh and former Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter were considered the leading candidates. Bayh ultimately finished a distant third behind Uncommitted delegates and Carter,[36] seemingly hindered by his support for women's rights. "Bayh has become the focal point of the [abortion] issue," said the executive director of the National Right to Life Committee since Bayh opposed a constitutional amendment banning abortion before his subcommittee. Liberal support did not coalesce and Bayh finished third in the New Hampshire primary and then seventh in the Massachusetts primary.
Ellen McCormick, a non-politician who ran on a pro-life platform, ran in several states and received federal matching funds. Every Sunday at Catholic Mass, the lector (i. e., lay person who read aloud) petitioned the deity to bless her campaign.
One pundit branded Frank Church and Jerry Brown as the "Wizards of the West." That was after Mo Udall had dropped out.
Covering the election for CBS was Walter Cronkite. For NBC it was David Brinkley, who proceeded to join John Chancellor as co-anchor of the Nightly News. Frank Reynolds was the anchor for ABC.
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It was an interesting race.
