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Line 29: − + − + − − In the midst of the 1980 campaign, a pro-U.S. monarchy was toppled by the 1979 [[Iran|Iranian]] Revolution and dozens of [[Iran Hostage Crisis|American hostages were taken]] inside the American embassy by Islamic fundamentalist revolutionaries after Carter gave sanctuary to exiled dictator Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. With the international outrage at the [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] invasion of [[Afghanistan]] later the same year, Carter was rendered impotent, as America saw its influence declining abroad. − + + + + + + + − + − − He was defeated in the [[United States presidential election, 1980|1980 presidential election]] by Ronald Reagan by nearly ten percentage points. [[Republican Party|Republicans]] also gained control of the Senate for the first time in twenty-five years. The electoral college vote was a landslide, with 489 votes (representing 44 states) for Reagan and 49 for Carter (representing 6 states and the District of Columbia).
add details and sequence
==[[United States presidential election, 1976|1976 Campaign]]==
==[[United States presidential election, 1976|1976 Campaign]]==
Carter officially announced his involvement in the race for President. Despite being a relatively politically inexperienced candidate, he turned it to his advantage. He was able to avoid the [[Watergate]] scandal and claim a clean history. He eventually managed to win the Democratic nomination and chose Minnesota Senator [[Walter Mondale]] as his running mate. Carter based his campaign on his reputation, political freshness and being a honest, born-again Christian, hammering hard at the Watergate scandal that brought down [[Richard Nixon]] in 1974. [[Image:Carter76.jpg|thumb|250px]] His opponent incumbent President [[Gerald Ford]] campaigned on his record as a Congressman and success in recovering from Watergate, but was hurt by having given Nixon a full pardon.
Carter officially announced his involvement in the race for President. Despite being a relatively politically inexperienced candidate, he turned it to his advantage. He was able to avoid the [[Watergate]] scandal and claim a clean history. He eventually managed to win the Democratic nomination and chose Minnesota Senator [[Walter Mondale]] as his running mate. Carter based his campaign on his reputation, political freshness and being a honest, born-again Christian, hammering hard at the Watergate scandal that brought down [[Richard Nixon]] in 1974. [[Image:Carter76.jpg|thumb|200px]] His opponent incumbent President [[Gerald Ford]] campaigned on his record as a Congressman and success in recovering from Watergate, but was hurt by having given Nixon a full pardon.
Carter wavered slightly after the first presidential debate, but managed to regain lost ground when Ford faltered and said the Soviets did not control Poland. Carter managed a narrow win.<ref>[[Encyclopedia of Presidents, Jimmy Carter]], by Linda R. Wade, Children's Press, Chicago, 1989, pp. 45-57. His Christianity notwithstanding, Carter is the first and only elected presidential candidate to have ever been interviewed in ''Playboy Magazine'' (Nov. 1976 Issue, interviewed by Robert Scheer). [http://books.google.com/books?id=k-DXDZDo9xUC&pg=RA1-PA33&dq=Jimmy+Carter+Playboy+magazine&ei=WSdBSbbSMpOMkASq3PTFDg ''Conversations with Carter''], Jimmy Carter, Don Richardson, Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1998. All three networks mentioned the interview; Cronkite said only "words mild for Playboy but perhaps a little racy for Sunday school".<ref> [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,918410,00.html "Bowdlerizing Jimmy
Carter wavered slightly after the first presidential debate, but managed to regain lost ground when Ford faltered and said the Soviets did not control Poland. Carter managed a narrow win.<ref>[[Encyclopedia of Presidents, Jimmy Carter]], by Linda R. Wade, Children's Press, Chicago, 1989, pp. 45-57. His Christianity notwithstanding, Carter is the first and only elected presidential candidate to have ever been interviewed in ''Playboy Magazine'' (Nov. 1976 Issue, interviewed by Robert Scheer). [http://books.google.com/books?id=k-DXDZDo9xUC&pg=RA1-PA33&dq=Jimmy+Carter+Playboy+magazine&ei=WSdBSbbSMpOMkASq3PTFDg ''Conversations with Carter''], Jimmy Carter, Don Richardson, Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1998. All three networks mentioned the interview; Cronkite said only "words mild for Playboy but perhaps a little racy for Sunday school". [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,918410,00.html "Bowdlerizing Jimmy
Monday"], ''[[Time Magazine]]'' Oct. 04, 1976</ref>. [[Image:1976election.jpg|thumb|350px]]
Monday"], ''[[Time Magazine]]'' Oct. 04, 1976</ref>. [[Image:1976election.jpg|thumb|350px]]
==Presidency==
==Presidency==
Carter's presidency was marked by retrenchment, after the disappointing agony that had been the [[Vietnam War]], and economic [[stagflation]] churning at home.
Carter's presidency was marked by retrenchment, after the disappointing agony that had been the [[Vietnam War]], and economic [[stagflation]] churning at home.
Despite Carter's own Democratic Party controlling both Houses of Congress, and the White House he failed to reform the tax system, and to reduce the size of the government bureaucracy, as promised during the 1976 campaign, or to pass the Martin Luther King holiday.
Despite Carter's own Democratic Party controlling both Houses of Congress, and the White House he failed to reform the tax system, and to reduce the size of the government bureaucracy, as promised during the 1976 campaign, or to pass the Martin Luther King holiday.
===Human rights===
He has also been criticized for not doing enough to promote his proclaimed human rights foreign policy stance in his administration, such as continuing to support the [[Indonesia]]n government even while it was implicated in the commission of acts of genocide in the occupation of East Timor.
He has also been criticized for not doing enough to promote his proclaimed human rights foreign policy stance in his administration, such as continuing to support the [[Indonesia]]n government even while it was implicated in the commission of acts of genocide in the occupation of East Timor.
===Cold War===
Carter's response to Soviet aggression against Afghanistan was to end détente, stop American grain shipments to Russia, humiliate the Soviets by organizing a worldwide boycott of their Olympics, giving military aid to anti-Communist forces in Afghanistan, and restarting the Cold War with an increase in military spending. It was too little too late, said the conservatives, who turned to [[Ronald Reagan]] to end the multiple crises.
===Iranian crisis===
The [[Iran Hostage Crisis]], in which militants seized American diplomats for 444 days to intense American humiliation, ruined Carter's remaining prestige. He ordered a rescue mission that collapsed and led to the resignation of his Secretary of State. The anti-Soviet hawks in his administration came to power.
==1980 defeat==
Carter won renomination, easily defeating Senator [[Ted Kennedy]], who was surprisingly inarticulate in appealing to the left-wing of the party as Carter moved to the right.
Carter's response to Soviet aggression against Afghanistan was to single out American farmers who suffered terribly when he terminated the Russian Wheat Deal, a keystone Nixon [[Detente]] initiative to establish trade with USSR and lessen [[Cold War]] tensions.
Carter was defeated in the [[United States presidential election, 1980|1980 presidential election]] by Ronald Reagan by nearly ten percentage points. [[Republican Party|Republicans]] also gained control of the Senate for the first time in twenty-five years. The electoral college vote was a landslide, with 489 votes (representing 44 states) for Reagan and 49 for Carter (representing 6 states and the District of Columbia).
Carter personally opposed [[abortion]] but only recently, more than a quarter of a century after his presidency, expressed his opposition in public.
Carter personally opposed [[abortion]] but only recently, more than a quarter of a century after his presidency, expressed his opposition in public.