Objective: Students will analyze why Jimmy Carter, an "outsider" to Washington politics, had difficulty realizing his political objectives.
Students will determine, evaluate, and then support with evidence if Jimmy Carter's Presidency was a miserable failure or where their outside forces working against him (did events conspire against him)?
Students will determine, evaluate, and then support with evidence if Jimmy Carter's Presidency was a miserable failure or where their outside forces working against him (did events conspire against him)?
The Republicans, seemingly so invulnerable to defeat in 1972, had trouble defending their record in 1976. Watergate, Vietnam, Ford's pardon of Richard Nixon, coupled with serious problems with inflation and unemployment, led to widespread voter defections. In addition, a conservative intraparty challenge from Ronald Reagan almost cost Gerald Ford his party's nomination.
Meanwhile, the Democrats chose Jimmy Carter, a former governor of Georgia, on the first ballot after he had won an impressive string of primary victories. Carter, a "born-again" Christian, began running for the nomination as early as 1973. He demonstrated a single-minded devotion to overcome his lack of national recognition. By convention time, he had won eighteen of thirty-one Democratic primaries. Carter promised to create more jobs, establish a humanitarian and moral approach to government, grant amnesty to Vietnam draft evaders, reorganize and trim down the federal bureaucracy, develop a comprehensive energy program, and insure equal rights for the urban and rural poor. Perhaps most significantly, he prided himself on being an "outsider" to Washington politics and created a personal image of one free from Washington political contamination.
Carter won the presidency in a very close election (Popular Vote: Carter-40,828,929 Ford-39,148,940). Carter's stature as an "outsider" turned out to be less an asset in office than it had been in the campaign.
Meanwhile, the Democrats chose Jimmy Carter, a former governor of Georgia, on the first ballot after he had won an impressive string of primary victories. Carter, a "born-again" Christian, began running for the nomination as early as 1973. He demonstrated a single-minded devotion to overcome his lack of national recognition. By convention time, he had won eighteen of thirty-one Democratic primaries. Carter promised to create more jobs, establish a humanitarian and moral approach to government, grant amnesty to Vietnam draft evaders, reorganize and trim down the federal bureaucracy, develop a comprehensive energy program, and insure equal rights for the urban and rural poor. Perhaps most significantly, he prided himself on being an "outsider" to Washington politics and created a personal image of one free from Washington political contamination.
Carter won the presidency in a very close election (Popular Vote: Carter-40,828,929 Ford-39,148,940). Carter's stature as an "outsider" turned out to be less an asset in office than it had been in the campaign.