Reply #5: You have to wade through some lousy writing but here are some tidbits

[Doremus]

Every presidential candidate since 1960 has gotten a "bump" or "bounce" (sounds like menu items at a Bangkok girlie bar), except George McGovern (this mostly had to do with the fact that his upper teeth are very large — it's a technical thing). After the 1980 convention, Jimmy Carter erased Reagan's healthy lead, gaining 7 points while Reagan lost 6. So, during this week twenty years ago the race stood at 39% for Reagan, 38% for Carter, and 14% for John Anderson (who, if I hadn't seen him on C-SPAN this weekend, I would have sworn was a fry guy at a McDonald's I go to).

Now here's the really important thing to keep in mind: Jimmy Carter was a loser (oh I know, he built some houses, toasted some dictators, grew some peanuts blah, blah, blah, pin a rose on him). And guess what? He lost, for that is what losers do. Indeed he lost by a bigger margin — 50.75% to 41.02% — than the amount by which he was trailing before his bounce.