Jimmy Carter was elected president of U.S. in November 1976. However, this fact wasn't a success for him. On the contrary, it marked the beginning of an ordeal, instead of a triumph. His victory was by a slim margin of 50.1 percent, a margin that could not produce the necessary mandate to govern successfully. The signs of an impending catastrophe appeared immediately. First, there were the president's relations with Congress. The House Speaker started by even objecting to the menu the president offered to congressional leaders at their first meeting.
Therefore, almost everything Carter proposed turned to ashes. His comprehensive energy policy floundered in the Senate for months, and when it passed in Congress in 1978, it had so many compromises that the president called it a partial victory. Also, his finance reform and hospital cost containment proposals failed, as did his anti-inflation efforts (inflation rates more than doubled during his presidency). The same happened to his national health care and welfare reforms, as well as to all his domestic reform efforts.
Outside the administration the opposition was also fierce, if not fiercer. Labor unions openly defied the president. The 1977-1978 coal strike continued for 109 days and Carter seemed unable to solve the dispute. The final blow came in November 1979 when the U.S. embassy in Iran was seized by terrorists who took 62 Americans hostage. They also burned Carter in effigy and set U.S. flags on fire in front of waiting television cameras. Carter was unable to end the ordeal: when in April 1980 he approved a rescue plan, it failed miserably, since two helicopters crashed and dead men were added to the sorrowful situation. Finally, Jimmy Carter's presidency ended in total failure: he lost in the next 1980 election to Ronald Reagan.
Early in 1990, however, the situation changed: Carter fell back into favor. The signs appeared immediately. The newspaper Washington Post published an article that year titled "Jimmy --Come Back! All Is Forgiven!" At the same time, the English magazine Economist asked: "Jimmy Carter for President in 1992?" Meanwhile, a poll discovered that in his home state of Georgia he had a favorable approval rating with 74 percent of his fellow Georgians. By 1994 Carter's return was complete. A Nebraska senator called him the "finest living ex-president," and when he appeared in bookstores to autograph copies of his book Turning Point, lots of people were awaiting him.
Also, on a June Tuesday in 1994, at the age of 70, Carter was present in a ceremony in Atlanta for the unveiling of a sculpture of himself. Present were also many dignitaries and his former associates. He was "being honored in life by the kind of tribute usually paid only posthumously," his biographer Kenneth E. Morris says. And in 2002 Carter's efforts on behalf of global peace were recognized worldwide: he won the ultimate honor, the Nobel Peace Prize.
Conclusion
Jimmy Carter's life shows us that being even president of U.S. is not necessarily a successful season in one's life. Success can be achieved through other, very different ways.
On the subject of this article I have written a whole book titled The Seasons of Our Lives. The moment you have finished reading this book, you will be able to know whether the years just ahead are good or bad for you, and how long this season will last. You will be able thus to act accordingly: if there is a storm on the horizon, you will take shelter in time; if sunny days loom ahead, you will take advantage before the opportunity pass. To help as many people as possible to benefit from my book, I decided to offer it free on line (http://www.GeorgeKouloukis.com) George Pan Kouloukis is a Greek attorney-at-law, a barrister. To contact the author, visit his above web site. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=George_Kouloukis |
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