When you look at the 4 years Jimmy Carter was president and all the problems he caused it is impossible not to see he was the worst president in American history and it was not close.
Under Carter:
- Cuba released many of their prisoners and mental patients and put them on small boats bound for Florida.
- Refugees from Haiti stormed the beaches of Florida as well creating another immigration crisis
- Iran took Americans hostage and kept them hostage for 444 days after Jimmy Carter withdrew support for the Shah and Muslim extremists took over the country - as well as the American embassy (an act of war). Car
- The Iranian hostage rescue mission was a disastrous failure. This was partly because Carter refused to give the military the go ahead on a larger force to go in an rescue the hostages.
- Carter's economic policies create the worst inflation America had seen in many years. Interest rates hit close to 20%
- The fall of the Shah of Iran also led to an energy crisis in the US. Gasoline was in short supply and people waited on long lines to fill up their cars at gas stations all over the country.
By the time the 1980 election season started there was a heavy malaise that fell over the country. The morale of the American people was at an all time low. I remember this feeling at the time. You could cut it with a knife. Jimmy Carter blamed it on the American people. Ronald Reagan defeated him in a landslide election and not a slim margin landslide like Trump claims he won over Biden and Harris. Reagan carried 44 states and 489 electoral votes. He defeated Jimmy Carter by 8.5 million votes.
One wonderful byproduct to that era is that the climate, mood and tension from all of the above set the stage for one of the greatest sports moments in history:
I remember it well, I was in 6th grade, the game wasn't even shown live but rumors started circulating we had upset the Russians, they grew and grew until breaking news confirmed what we never thought was possible.
Watching the replay later that night was one of the best sports moments of my life (and I've been fortunate to have a lot of them)