Conservative versus Liberal.

The 1984 presidential election was unusual in the annals of American politics because the two major-party candidates represented diametrically opposing ideologies. American voters have traditionally preferred middle-of-the-road candidates, and not since Lyndon B. Johnson's landslide victory over Barry Goldwater exactly twenty years earlier had a liberal, New Deal Democrat gone up against a truly conservative Republican. In 1984 the results were reversed, with Ronald Reagan winning a second term by decisively defeating Walter Mondale. Reagan had clearly moved the nation to the right during his first term, but his election was widely interpreted as a victory for Reagan the man rather than his conservative policies.

Blurring Political Distinctions.

During the campaign each candidate tried to appeal to the broadest possible range of voters by portraying himself as a moderate and his opponent as a dangerous extremist. Despite jokes about his inability to...