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Jimmy Carter Failures

Decent Essays

Jimmy Carter, the 39th president, was a very simple and relatable man from Plains, Georgia. His ideals appealed to the Southern democrats. Washington was in chaos after the resignation of Nixon and the citizens of America were tiered of the government’s drama. This is what made Carter so popular in the 1976 election. Carter appealed to America because he was an outsider to Washington. He also wanted to comply with what the people wanted for America; “Carter sought to portray himself as a man of the people” (“Jimmy Carter”, 2009). He used the Watergate scandal to his advantage. He promised America he would always be honest with them: “I’ll never tell a lie”. (“Jimmy Carter”, 2009). This seemed to win over America for the moment because he won …show more content…

The Hostage Crisis in the late 1970s was considered one of Carter’s biggest failures. More than 60 members of the United States Embassy were taken hostage in Tehran. Their capturers were mere Iranian Students who were able to keep them captive for 444 days ("Jimmy Carter", 2016). This event portrayed President Carter as inept (“Jimmy Carter”, 2009). He did not negotiate their release and the rescue attempt the government tried failed. A group of student had held American citizens for over a year and nothing much was done about it. This was one of the most undermining events of Carter’s Presidential career and an embarrassment to America (Fink, 2002). Carter’s private negotiations with Panama about the canal led to more mistrust of the American citizens. They thought he was going to simply give it away without thinking about the consequences for America. Once again he lost more respect and distrust from his country (“Jimmy Carter”, …show more content…

He did not get along with Congress, which is very important to get any laws passed. This bad relationship caused him to lose popularity with citizens because he did not come through with the promises made during his campaign (“Jimmy Carter”, 2009). Carter also had very bad leadership skills. He was considered weak and a bad leader when he did not do much to rescue the members United States Embassy (“Jimmy Carter”, 2016). Carter was able to become President on the fact that America was so over the drama of the Watergate incident (Fink, 2002). Jimmy Carter was in the right place in the right time to become president; however, he was a very unsuccessful President of the United

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