Rick Perlstein, in both 'Invisible Bridge' and 'Reaganland,' wrote about the pardon and the aftermath. It can be argued the Democrats did more to try and defeat Carter than Ford did by pardoning Old TR&R. Everything else aside, Carter won in '76 because he won Texas, the last Democratic candidate to win there, by less than 50,000 votes and carried all but one of the old Confedercy states.