6. Don’t Play The Same Tune
Carter’s authenticity, humility, honesty, and the fact that voters saw him as a good family man saw him to victory in the 1976 presidential election. But by 1980, not only had his opponent changed to the widely popular former actor and governor of California, Ronald Reagan, the landscape on which this battle would be fought had changed dramatically.
The rise of radical Islamists in the Middle East was casing major concern in the United States. This all came to a head when on November 4, 1979, 52 United States diplomats and citizens were taken hostage when a group of militarized Iranian college students, who supported the Iranian Revolution, took over the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. Instead of swiftly and decisively dealing with this situation, a diplomatic standoff ensued.
