ABSTRACT
Historians, media outlets and public opinion polls reflect that Jimmy Carter is remembered as one of the worst presidents in modern American history, from his handling of the recession and stagflation to the gas crisis to his supposed declaration of a national "malaise". The Iran Hostage Crisis occurred in a moment of crisis fatigue. Positioning the captives as husbands, fathers and brothers erases their roles as representatives of the American state on the international stage. Nightline emerged on the cusp of the presidential election of 1980. An unpopular incumbent president when the crisis began in November 1979, Jimmy Carter was considered a weak-willed leader unwilling to flex American might to gain control of the economy, women's rights, or the rising influence of the OPEC states. As Kissinger articulated in his speech at the Republican National Convention, Reagan's ascendancy to the presidency could provide a cure to the national impotence brought about by Carter's failed leadership.
