From the prospective of a 62 year old citizen and voter, Carter was a one-term President because he was a spineless wimp who dismantled the US military and left us the laughing stock of the world after the Iranian islamo-fascists seized our embassy and its staff and held it for over a year. He did not lose the election because because of the economy. Revisionists historians tend to paint a politically compatible picture of 1980, but actually most of us were doing quite well financially in 1980. Yes there were high mortgage interest rates because of high inflation, but that impacted the rich much more than the middle class. Most of use got nice pay raises that kept up with the inflation.
Reagan presided over the second great depression in October 1982, almost two years after he took office. I lost my job then along with 10.7% of the workforce (those that were still looking for work and hadn't given up). Among my friends in my general age group, about one in every two lost a job during that economic depression. While unemployment very slowly subsided during the balance of the 80s, work didn't get as plentiful and lucrative again until the 90s. Starting in 1982, housing prices collapsed. By 1986 my townhouse was worth about half of what I paid for it in 1979. Almost half the townhouses in the complex I was in then went into foreclosure. Reagan was a great President for foreign policy. He defeated the Soviet Union, won the Cold War, and freed Eastern Europe from Communism. But, his economic policies were a disaster. Oh, the rest of the 80s were great for me because I got a job working for the Government in a bomb factory and I made great money with great benefits, while my friends struggled from job to job.
End of Off-Topic rant and history lesson.
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