Carter's Public Opinion Ratings.

In July 1979 President Jimmy Carter's approval rating reached a low point of 26 percent, with the American public particularly unhappy with his handling of domestic issues such as inflation, unemployment, high interest rates, and a major oil shortage. After a ten-day conference at Camp David, Carter managed to cloak a good energy proposal in a speech that preached to the American people about a national "crisis in confidence" and offered a personal mea culpa for his concerns having "become increasingly narrow, focused more and more on what the isolated world of Washington thinks is important." His subsequent reshuffling of his cabinet and the forced resignations of five advisers only deepened the impression among many Americans that the true "crisis of confidence" belonged to their president, whose administration seemed incompetent to govern the nation. Democrats overwhelmingly favored Sen. Edward...