Jimmy's Malaise: When President Carter rocked the nation with an address that hit nerves but omitted one now-famous word

Forty-five years ago Monday, President Jimmy Carter addressed the nation about what he called “a growing disrespect for government” and “a crisis of confidence” that was preventing the country from dealing with the deepening energy crisis and spiking interest rates.

The speech is best remembered, however, for a single word the president did not say.

Carter Worked For Days On The Speech

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On the morning of the 4th, however, Carter read — and disliked intensely — the speech his staffers had prepared for him. “There’s more to it than energy,” he told them, and canceled the address. Instead, Carter launched an effort to draw up a more sweeping policy statement.

The president then spent 10 days holed up at Camp David — the site of his greatest achievement the year before, a peace agreement between Egypt and Israel — meeting with business, labor, education and political leaders and seeking advice on how to shape the message he finally broadcast on July 15, 1979.

Not Once Did Carter Use The Word 'Malaise'

Carter spoke about “ a fundamental threat to American democracy,” “a crisis of confidence” and “sacrifice.” But not once did he say the word “malaise.”

Where did that come from? Probably from Carter’s opponent in the 1980 election, Ronald Reagan. In accepting the Republican nomination for president, Reagan said “I find no national malaise. I find nothing wrong with the American people.” Instead, Reagan, said, he saw America as “a shining city on a hill.”

That kind of positive attitude resonated with Americans. Reagan won easily in November.

And “malaise” resonated, too. Just not in a way that did Carter any good. In a 1993 episode of “The Simpsons,” citizens of the fictional city of Springfield unveil a statue of Jimmy Carter.

The inscription? You guessed it.

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The Address Was Well-Received At The Time ...

Princeton history professor Sean Wilentz wrote in his 2009 book “The Age of Reason” that “Carter appeared to be abdicating his role as leader and blaming the people themselves for their own afflictions.”

In fact, though, the speech worked, wrote historian Kevin Mattson of Ohio University. “It prompted an overwhelmingly favorable response. Carter received a whopping 11 percent rise in his poll numbers. The mail that poured into the White House testified that many citizens felt moved by the speech.”

Carter wrote in his 2010 memoir, “White House Diary”: “The entire episode was one of the most dramatic and memorable events of my administration.

“Although initially praised, my speech was later characterized by Ted Kennedy, Ronald Reagan and adversarial news reporters as a speech about America’s ‘malaise’ because I pointed out some of our nation’s problems and discussed the challenges that could and would be overcome by bold and direct action on my energy proposals.

“Down through the years, however, the speech has often been called prescient and praised for its honest analysis of the troubled mood of our nation.”

“A speech that couldn’t precisely diagnose the maladies of 1979 more accurately describes the challenges of 2023,” wrote David French earlier this year in the New York Times. “The trends he saw emerging two generations ago now bear their poisonous fruit in our body politic.”

...But Then Carter 'Fired His Entire Cabinet'

Carter wrote that his intention was to replace a handful of Cabinet members — especially those who were aligned with Sen. Edward Kennedy, who was running against a sitting president of his own party.

Carter’s attorney general, Griffin Bell, suggested each Cabinet member offer their resignations, which would allow Carter to accept the ones he wanted.

However, with so much else in disarray, that’s not how it played in the media.

Mattson wrote: “In the end, Jimmy Carter did blow the situation, but it wasn’t because of the speech itself. Rather, he blew the opportunity that the speech opened up for him. Just two days (later), Carter fired his Cabinet, signifying a governmental meltdown. The president’s poll numbers sank again as confusion and disarray took over.

“Carter could give a great speech, but there were two things he couldn’t manage: to govern well enough to make his language buoy him or to find a way to yoke the energy crisis with concrete civic re-engagement initiatives.”

“Then the world erupted,” wrote French. “In November, Iranian militants stormed the U.S. Embassy and took dozens of Americans hostage. In December, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan.”

The Guy Who Wrote The First Draft of the Speech Went On to Work For Donald Trump

In the 2009 book “What the Heck Are You Up To, Mr. President?”, Gordon Stewart, a member of Carter’s speechwriting staff, is credited with writing Carter’s Crisis of Confidence speech.

However, Patrick Caddell — who was then a Democratic pollster and an unofficial Carter advisor — begged to differ.

“The truth is ... the idea for the speech originated from a series of long memoranda from me to President Carter and meetings in the spring of 1979 which culminated in the speech,” Caddell wrote.

“The initial draft of the speech, which would remain as the heart of the speech in final form, was written by myself and Wayne Grandquist of the Office of Management and Budget, who assisted me.”

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In his ”White House Diary,” Carter wrote that Caddell’s work was “one of the most brilliant analyses of sociological and political interrelationships I’ve ever seen.”

Caddell later worked for the Gary Hart and Walter Mondale presidential campaigns in 1984 and the Joe Biden campaign in 1988. He wrote the two 1987 Biden speeches that later became famous when Biden was accused of having plagiarized previous addresses by John F. Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey.

By the turn of the century, Caddell had flipped to the other side of the political spectrum. In a 2012 presentation to Accuracy in Media , he accused the news media of being “the enemy of the American people” — something he would repeat often over the years and something President Donald Trump would begin saying in 2017.

Caddell served as an informal advisor to Donald Trump and to Trump’s 2016 campaign. He began making frequent appearances on Fox News and on Steve Bannon’s radio show on Breitbart.

Caddell suffered a stroke in early 2019 and died shortly afterward. He was 68.