Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
In his only term in the White House, the the late President Jimmy Carter achieved the Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt, helped move the world further away from nuclear proliferation with the second Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT), signed the Panama Canal Treaties, which put end a century of direct American control over the crucial and deregulated channel. the country’s airline industry.
But Carter, a former governor of Georgia who defeated Republican President Gerald Ford in the 1976 election, also faced the Nicaraguan socialist revolution in Central America and the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan, which led to a resumption of wartime tensions Cold with Moscow and a US embargo of the 1980 Summer Olympics And domestically, the one-term Democratic president went fighting massive inflation known as stagflation and an energy crisis that caused the return of gas lines across the country.
As Carter struggled to deal with multiple domestic and international crises, the then-president went on national television in July 1979 to deliver what was called “the crisis confidence” but was later dubbed the discourse of “disease”, although the world’s disquiet. never appeared at Carter’s actual address.
Carter called on Americans to return to a sense of civic duty that would unify the country through a call to shared sacrifice for the common good of the nation. Although it initially gave the president a boost in the polls, the goodwill was short-lived. A couple of days after the speech, Carter fired several members of his cabinet and was unable to continue to be seen as a strong and effective leader.
REACTIONS BLOW UP WHEN JIMMY CARTER ENTERS THE HOSPICE
President Jimmy Carter and his Republican challenger, Ronald Reagan, shake hands as they greet each other before their debate on stage at the Music Hall in Cleveland, Ohio. (Getty Images)
Adding to Carter’s problems was the sacking of the American embassy in Tehran in the late fall of 1979, which triggered the more than year-long Iranian hostage crisis.
Carter, politically weakened by a fierce and nearly successful primary challenge by the late Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts for the 1980 Democratic presidential nomination, was crushed by Republican candidate Ronaldo. Reagan in the general election, with the former California governor sweeping 44 of the 50 states.
Historian and author Craig Shirley, who wrote several books about Reagan and Carter, pointed to the economic conditions of the time as a major contributor to Carter’s demise.
“Interest rates were something like 18%. Inflation was almost as high. A dollar wasn’t worth what it was yesterday. It was really devastating to people’s savings,” Shirley noted. in an interview on C-SPAN a few years ago. ago
FORMER PRESIDENT JIMMY CARTER WILL SPEND THE “REMAINING TIME” AT HOME RECEIVING HOSPICE CARE
Veteran political scientist Wayne Lesperance, president of New England College, agreed.
“While it is true that the Carter Administration had its share of successes, such as the Camp David Accords and the Panama Canal Treaty, in the months leading up to the 1980 election, voters focused on a high inflation, low economic growth, an energy crisis and the growing perception that American power and influence in the world was in decline,” Lesperance said.
Republican President-elect Ronald Reagan (right) and his wife Nancy with President Jimmy Carter and wife Roslyn outside the White House on Inauguration Day, January 20, 1981 (Photo by Diana Walker/Getty Images)
“The Iran hostage crisis and the failed rescue attempt marked the feeling that the US under Carter had become a paper tiger. Americans wanted John Wayne. They elected Ronald Reagan the campaign of which projected strength, confidence, humor and a nostalgic appeal to an America like the proverbial shining city on a hill,” he emphasized.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
But it is the discourse of “discomfort” that still stands out more than four decades after Carter’s stinging rejection by American voters.
“Jimmy Carter’s one-term presidency would be known for many things: stagnation, a terrible economy, weakness in the face of Soviet advances, but also the Camp David Accords and the start of the Reagan era. However, to his eternal chagrin, Carter failed. Four years in office will always be reduced to the word ‘upset’ and his horrible, terrible, shameful speech in July 1979,” Shirley wrote in 40 anniversary of the infamous address.
