President Jimmy Carter only served one term as president. He ran for president in 1976 against Gerald Ford after President Nixon resigned. Carter was the democratic candidate while Ford was the republican candidate. At that time Carter wasn't known very well in Washington besides that he had been the governor of Georgia. He'd also been a state senator.
Being unknown was actually an advantage for him. After the Watergate scandal, the people wanted someone who was separate from all of it. Ford, on the other hand, had pardoned Nixon which was a major blow to his campaign. Carter made one huge mistake during his campaign time. He was interviewed by Playboy magazine and made some pretty incriminating comments. It's appropriate to say that after the interview a lot of women lost faith in him. The debates the candidates had really helped Carter because, as a newcomer, he could be seen as oblvious to domestic affairs. Through these debates he could prove his competance. Ford made a pretty big mistake during one debate. He stated "There is no Soviet domination in Eastern Europe, and there never will be under a Ford administration". The response was "I'm sorry, what?...did I understand you to say, sir, that the Russians are not using Eastern Europe as their own sphere of influence in occupying most of the countries there and making sure with their troops that it's a communist zone?" This, obviously, was huuuuge mistake and definitely hurt his campaign. Another hit to the Ford campaign came from his vice presidential candidate, Robert Dole. He blamed all the wars so far on the democrats because he said they "were militarily unprepared".
The election results came out very close. Carter won but not by much. Popular vote: Carter-40,831,881 Ford-39,148,634. Carter got 297 electoral votes and Ford got 240. The US was split pretty evenly with Ford winning most of the western states with a few eastern and Carter winning most of the eastern. Jimmy became the 39th president of the United States.
During his presidency, Carter shot to make the US government more "competent and compassionate". When he became president the nation was in a recession (much like now). He never managed to get us out of it but he did reduce unemployment and decrease the deficit (which we could very much use right now). Carter was huge on social reform and human rights. In fact, he was the first president to address gay rights. Carter was president during a period of energy crisis. To conserve energy he created the United States Department of Energy. Oil and gas price controlls were put in place and thermostats in government building were set at a constant temperature. He also created the National Energy Act and the Public Utilities Regulatory Policy Act.
The 1970s were a period of stagflation, high interest rates and low economic development. The deficit at this time was $66 billion (a breath of fresh air compared to today). Carter appointed Paul Volcker as the new chairman of the Federal Reserve Board.
Then came the famous "Malaise" speech. Carter referred to America's situation as a "crisis of confidence". A couple days after the speech, Carter asked all his cabinet offiers to resign. He accepted five of them.
Carter cut the military's budget by $6 billion, removed nuclear weapons from South Korea, and cut back on the troops stationed there. He also made a peace agreement with Israel and Egypt ending a 31-year state of war. Carter established full diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China and promised to give control of the Panama Canal back to Panama. The Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT II) was negotiated but retracted before it could be ratified when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. Carter gave arms to Afghan insurgents after the Soviet Union invaded them. There also was a bit of a fiasco when the Shah of Iran came here for medical help. The Iranians seized our America Embassy and held hostages until the Shah of Iran was returned.
Carter did run again for reelection in 1980 but was beat by Ronald Reagan. That hasn't stopped his career any though. He stayed involved in important causes and has written over 20 books. In 2002 he received the Nobel Peace Prize for his work "to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development" through The Carter Center.
I think Carter got kind of a bad rep for president. He left office with a less-than-admired approval rating but I think he deserves a little credit. He's also stayed pretty involved after his presidency.
More current picture
There does seem to be some striking similarities...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1976
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidency_of_Jimmy_Carter
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1844704_1844706_1844449,00.html
http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/national.php?f=0&year=1976
Comments