>>6147306 (lb)
The dynamic now is somewhat like it was when Carter was elected. People were fed up with the Watergate bullshit/fallout flying back and forth from both directions and they decided to go with a fresh face not associated with DC politics
So, I think the dems want to fuck things up as much as they can then claim that, even if Trump is doing good stuff, he's too divisive for the good of the country in general. Nixon actually did a lot of good stuff. Ford was an afterthought, not more than a placeholder, but as an ex-football player (think Whitaker, but less in your face) and practical; blah but not unlikeable. Ford just couldn't put the Watergate scandal dissatisfaction to rest after he pardoned Nixon.
Carter wasn't as unlikeable as this Buttigieg character seems to be (to me), although Carter did use his religion to underscore how he would not succumb to DC corruption and power politics. Carter definitely not the macho type like Nixon, rather more like today's metrosexuals.
Trump trying to set up the 1968 and 1972 dynamic where the country voted on their disgust with the left; while the dems want to set up the 1976 dynamic where people voted on their disgust with the machinations of politics in DC? Maybe where Newt is coming from. Newt, from GA, might have a good recollection of the Carter campaign.