On June 30th 1979, President Jimmy Carter was on his way to a vacation, after completing the successful SALT II arms control negotiation with Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev. While aboard Air Force One, Carter got a call from Washington notifying him that he must return home right away due to the rise of a domestic energy crisis. The crisis started on December 16th, 1979 when two members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, Libya and Indonesia, decided to raise their oil prices by $4 and $2, respectively. These raised prices only heightened the energy crisis that had started around the beginning of 1979 due to a January revolution and rattled oil supplies in the Middle East and an earlier OPEC oil price raise in the beginning go the year. In the summer of 1979, cumulating raised oil prices finally went through the roof, leading to the first oil shortage since 1973. The shortage started in California and pushed eastward as more and more Americans began piling at gasoline stations to stock up on oil. Carter's approval rating dropped 25% due to this crisis, so he decided to spend over a week at Camp David with a multitude of Congressmen, clergy members, governors, etc, who all shared their criticisms on Carter and strategies for improvement. Carter's pollster, Caddell, approached Carter with a different point of view, explaining, "what was really disturbing to me was for the first time, we actually got numbers where people no longer believed that the future of America was going to be as good as it was now. And that really shook me, because it was so at odds with the American character"_. Carter was convinced by Caddell to channel his efforts in restoring this loss of American confidence by writing one of his most famous speeches, the "Crisis of Confidence". The speech became later known as his "malaise" speech, as it resembled more of a sermon while he convinced the American public to restore their faith in the nation and ask for redemption._
"In a nation that was proud of hard work, strong families, close-knit communities and our faith in God, too many of us now tend to worship self-indulgence and consumption. Human identity is no longer defined by what one does but by what one owns." -president carter in his "Crisis of confidence" speech
The American public, however, took Carter's speech as his way of blaming the people for the recent crisis at home. Many claimed that rather than blaming the public, Carter needed to take action to fix problems such as the energy crisis, the Iranian hostage crisis, an economic plummet, and international issues with the Soviet Union. Carter also lost public support when he forced five of his cabinet members to resign, including Energy Secretary James Schlesinger, and Health, Education and Welfare chief, Joseph Califano.
Expectedly, Carter lost by a wide margin in the 1980 elections to President Ronald Reagan. Reagan, unlike Carter, expressed his persuasive plans for America's future and how he and his administration will take action rather than blaming the problems on the people.
Expectedly, Carter lost by a wide margin in the 1980 elections to President Ronald Reagan. Reagan, unlike Carter, expressed his persuasive plans for America's future and how he and his administration will take action rather than blaming the problems on the people.