Are we re-living 1976?

Alan Jackson has a song on his latest CD about 1976 since that was the year he met his wife. Other than that, I haven't heard that year memorialized much, if at all. Certainly, if any commentator, columnist or talking head has compared this election year to 1976, (and by this time, it is entirely possible that it has happened), I haven't been aware of it. But consider these comparisons:

The country had just come through a war that had torn it apart. The President prior to the Republican nominee had endured notoriously low approval ratings (of course, he ended up resigning, as well, but that's another story). Economic concerns such as foreign oil consumption and inflation were driving the country into a tailspin. Gerald Ford, the Republican nominee, was portrayed as being too closely tied to the man whom he succeeded, Richard Nixon. He championed causes that conservatives detested such as the giveaway of the Panama Canal, which led to the rise in the primaries of a formidable challenger, Ronald Reagan, who almost stole the nomination from him.

Ford did pull the contest out, in the end, only to face a new, clean challenger with very little political history, Jimmy Carter. Ford came out of the summer conventions way behind in the polls, but by Election Day had closed to a dead heat, in spite of, on Ford's side of the ledger, a lack of charisma, a terrible economy and the embarrassments of his predecessor.

The resemblances are not total, but I think they are striking. Mitt Romney did not do as well as Ronald Reagan, but Reagan had better name ID in '76, and Romney did better than most thought he would. Other than that minor detail, I think the side-by-side can stand, though I can't speak with firsthand authority since I turned 1 year old in '76.