3.1 - Ford, Carter and new style of leadership Flashcards
(6 cards)
How similar, or allied, was Gerald Ford with Richard Nixon? Why did public opinion towards him quickly become hostile?
Nixon had emphasised the ceremonial aspects of the presidency most famously with the White House guards but his two successes played down the ceremonial in an attempt to suggest a new leadership style.
Gerald Ford was a respected and popular congressman from 1948 to 1973. He accepted the vice presidency off to Spiro Agnew’s resignation with the self deprecatory joke that he was ‘a ford not Lincoln’ When Nixon resigned Americans were desperate for a ‘regular guy’ in the White House. They thought they had one when pyjama clad, president-elect forward picked up his own newspaper office front porch, and waved to the press. Some Americans related to his family for instance his lively and outspoken wife was photographed pushing him fully clothed into the Camp David pool.
- How did the media portray Ford, and how significant do you think that is to his loss in the 1976 election?
Food sought to demonstrate to the Democrat controlled Congress that this was a new style of leadership in that he wanted to work in partnership with them he volunteered to be the first president since Lincoln to testify before Congress about the pardon however the pardon irreparably damaged relations.
It was probably the general loss of respect for the presidency after Watergate, Ford’s informality, and the fact he had not been elected president that combined to make the media decide that Ford was fair game for disrespectful coverage. The media enjoyed making fun of him. LBJ’s joke that he had played football once too often without a helmet was frequently cited. Ford was shown falling over on ski slopes and stumbling down a plane ramp. One network showed the latter 11 times in one news cast. a New Yorker magazine cover showed him as bozo the clown. A right wing New Hampshire newspaper christened him ‘Jerry the Jerk’. Fords frequently indecisive leadership did not help. For example when he changed his position on taxation the New York Times said ‘president Ford has not turned the economy around … but at least he has turned himself around’
Why was Jimmy Carter perceived as a weak president?
There was much criticism of Carter’s leadership style for instance of his micro management his inability to establish a productive relationship with Congress what some consider to be a joint presidency with his wife and his apparent inability to cope with crises:
* News of Carters micromanagement leaked out In 1979 with the story of how in his first six months as president he reviewed all requests to use the White House tennis courts
* Although a Democrat Carter’s relations with the Democrat Congress were poor. The House Speaker said Carter ‘didn’t seem to understand’ the need to master the legislative process
* The media made much of an influence of his wife referring to her as ‘Mrs. President’
* By December 1977 polls revealed that only 18% of Americans had ‘a lot’ of confidence in Carter an it was commonly asked ‘can Carter cope?’ by 1980 he had the lowest ever approval rating of any president he seemed incapable of dealing with the most pressing contemporary issues: the economy, the energy crisis and the Iranian hostage crisis
Why did the Iranian hostage crisis in 1979-80 affect Carter’s reputation?
In January 1973 president Nixon signed the Paris peace accords which ended the Vietnam War although the public welcomed this American exit from Vietnam there was a growing fear that the USA was losing its international primacy problems with Iran seemed to confirm this
In 1978 Islamic fundamentalist LED a successful revolution against the repressive pro American Shah of Iran in 1979 Iranian militants stormed the US embassy in Tehran and took 60 American hostage is in protest against Carter allowing the child to receive cancer treatment in the USA American humiliation increased when Carter tried but failed to negotiate the hostages release then send helicopters on an unsuccessful rescue mission in 1981 helicopter broke down upon entering Iranian airspace another got lost in a sandstorm and a third developed hydraulic problems the commanders and president Carter agreed to abort the mission but then one of the helicopters crashed into a US transport aircraft both burst into flames 8 American airmen died and four badly burned eventually Carters painstaking diplomacy 1 the release of the hostages but only after the United states had a new president by the November 1980 presidential election the general feeling was that Carter was a poor leader who messed up everything by 1980 a poll revealed that only 18% of Americans rated him a very strong leader
The Iranian hostage crisis impacted upon the 1980 presidential election under pond the future direction of American Society and politics in combination with Carter’s apparent inability to solve the nation’s economic problems it contributed to Carter’s defeat by the conservative republican Ronald Reagan
Why did Ronald Reagan’s victory in 1980 confirm that many Democrats were disillusioned with the political leadership of Carter?
the great communicator Reagan came across as a warm general an optimistic about American International and domestic capacities in contrast to the earnest moralistic Carter who told Americans that they were suffering crises of confidence and spirit in 1980 forty 7% of registered voters simply stayed at home many were poor and or unemployed and would normally have been expected to vote Democrat but were disillusioned with politics and with the leadership of Jimmy Carter
What are the main reasons that election turnout was so low (54% in 1976 and 53% in 1980)?
Polls indicated increasing disillusionment with politics:
* Percentage of Americans who felt that government will ‘do what is right most of the time’: 1969 - 56% vs 1979 - 29%
* Percentage of Americans believe government officials were ‘smart people who know what they are doing’: 1969 - 69% vs 1979 - 29%
* Percentage of Americans who felt that US affairs were run for the benefit of a few big interests rather than all the people: 1969 - 28% vs 1979 - 65%
Percentage of Americans who agreed that the ‘people running the country do not really care about what happens to you’: 1966 - 26% vs 1977 - 60%
