|
Search Sponsor:
|
PRESIDENTIAL INAUGURATIONS
Jimmy Carter
39th President Of The United States (1977-1981)
Inaugural Highlights
Date: Jan. 20, 1977
Weather: 26 degrees, with wind gusts up to 25 mph
President: Jimmy Carter
Vice President: Walter F. "Fritz" Mondale
Administered Oath: Chief Justice Warren E. Burger
Notable Guests: Coretta Scott King, Hubert H. Humphrey
Presidential Soundbite: Let our recent mistakes bring a resurgent commitment to the basic principles of our nation.
Popular-Vote Percentage: 50.1%
Electoral Votes: 297
Address (Jan. 20, 1977)First 100 Days
Presidential Priorities:
• Economic stimulus package
• Welfare reform
• Comprehensive energy policy
When Dick Cheney, then chief of staff to outgoing President Ford, cleaned out his White House office on Inauguration Day, Jan. 20, 1977, he left behind a bicycle wheel with broken spokes as a parting gift for Hamilton Jordan, the senior aide to incoming President Carter. Attached to the gift was a cautionary note. Cheney wrote that the Ford Administration had tried to run the White House without a chief of staff. Cheney had gotten wind that Carter planned to do the same, to ensure multiple lines of communication with the Oval Office. The characteristically blunt Cheney advised that such an organizational chart, resembling spokes entering the hub of a wheel from all sides, did not work.
The Carter White House ignored the warning, much to its later regret. It was the team's first mistake of the first 100 days. It would not be the last.
The traditional honeymoon period got off to a rocky start. Foreshadowing the gays-in-the-military controversy that would hobble President Clinton 16 years later, Carter, on the day after his inauguration, signed an executive order granting amnesty to Vietnam War draft dodgers. The new president was, in his view, simply honoring a campaign pledge, but the move generated a firestorm of criticism. Although opposition quickly ebbed, the initiative was a sign of the political tone deafness that would haunt the administration's early days.
Early on, Carter's announcement that he would halt construction of 60 dams and other water projects enraged pork-hungry members of Congress in affected districts. And the action, rather than cementing an alliance with environmental groups that should have been White House allies in this fight, only incurred their wrath, because the Administration failed to ax other water projects on ecological grounds.
Other missteps soon followed. To stimulate the slumping economy, the new Administration wanted -- among other initiatives -- a quick tax rebate of $ 50 per person. But by April 1977, the economy was already showing signs of improvement, and Carter withdrew the proposal. "There had been a tremendous amount of lobbying," said Anne Wexler, who started in the Carter Administration as a deputy Commerce undersecretary, "and then all of a sudden they dropped (the rebate). People (on Capitol Hill) had gone out on a limb, and it left a lot of them angry."
Some mistakes were the consequences of the Administration's bloated legislative wish list, which included executive branch reorganization, hospital cost containment, and urban policy revisions. (More)
Carter's Inauguration
Originally published Jan. 13, 2001
Jimmy Carter, a peanut farmer and former Georgia governor, was sworn in as the 39th President of the United States on Jan. 20, 1977, in an inaugural ceremony that closely followed the populist themes and poignant symbolism of his winning Democratic campaign.
Through his words and actions, Carter preached a message of hope and renewal to a country still reeling from the effects of Watergate. After swearing the oath of office on two Bibles -- one given to him by his mother, the other used by George Washington at his 1789 inauguration -- Carter began his speech by thanking outgoing President Ford "for all he has done to heal our land." Interestingly, following that rhetorical flourish, Carter dwelt little on the past and never mentioned former President Nixon or Watergate by name. Instead, Carter, who was elected on the promise that he would never lie to the American people, struck an almost spiritual tone as he called for a reawakening of the American spirit in domestic and international matters.
The most memorable event of the day, however, came at the conclusion of Carter's speech, when the new President, his wife, and his young daughter, Amy, set out on a mile-and-a-half walk down Pennsylvania Avenue from the Capitol to the White House. Carter's decision to break from the tradition of taking a limousine ride to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. was much debated among staffers and security officials. But in the end, the move proved a fitting symbolic gesture of the "sober optimism" that Carter sought to display at the "People's Inaugural." -- Chris Cillizza
First-Persons
Jody Powell, Press Secretary: "My aunt had read somewhere that one way to keep warm was to wrap garbage bags around your feet and knees. So we sat there half-wrapped in garbage bags."
Phil Wise, Appointments Secretary: "It was fairly moving. But at the same time, it was one event in a day of a dozen things that had to happen to keep things moving."
Gerald Rafshoon, Communications Director: "I oversaw the gala ball, the advertising for the inauguration, and the album that came out of the gala. During the ceremony itself, I stood on the platform and cried."
Hodding Carter III, Campaign Coordinator in Atlanta, Later State Department Spokesman: "It's interesting to me that one of the things that immediately sticks out is the effect of the weather. I was cold as hell."
Greg Schneiders, Deputy Assistant to the President for Special Projects: "If anybody knew about Carter's walk in advance, they did a good job of keeping it quiet. I thought it was a natural extension of the campaign."
