Independent Candidate John Anderson was getting endorsements, most notably from the Liberal Party. He was riding a wave of discontent over high unemployment and the Recession.

John Anderson: “You don’t fight inflation by throwing men and women out of work. What you try to do is build a stronger industrial base.”

Jimmy Carter was losing endorsements. The big question was whether or not Anderson would join in the debates. Meanwhile, Candidate Reagan promised to reveal his economic plans in an address later on in the day. The Emmy's were a dramatic no-show of actors because of the SAG strike. Poland was still striking. The Recession was still going on, The Middle-East was still in the midst of negotiations. And the school busing issue was heading to the Supreme Court.

So here is a sampling of three newscasts from September 8, 1980, including an interesting Newsbreak segment from Charles Osgood where he talks about the recent incident involving Cuban Boat People and our seeming ambivalence towards plight and horror.

Interesting day - but then, most are in retrospect.