Abstract
Reagan's slogan during the presidential campaign of 1980 was «Are you better off than you were four years ago? ». This slogan used the people's disappointment of Carter, presenting Reagan as the man going to erase the catastrophic four years of Carter's presidency. So the election of Reagan represented the repudiation of Carter and of the «malaise» of the 1970s.
The first sign of this malaise is the strong climate of distrust in power. The Watergate scandal brought this distrust in the presidency, and on the 8th of September 1974, Ford gave to Nixon his «full, free and absolute» pardon for any crimes which he had committed or “may have committed” during his Presidency, accentuating this skeptical climate by showing that Ford would have pardoned Nixon, no matter what he did. Skepticism was also rising towards the CIA, as the «Operation Chaos», a massive illegal domestic intelligence operation against antiwar activists and other dissidents, was revealed; leading to congressional investigations. Gillon in The American paradox shows the consequences of this distrust which are a new adversarial way for the media to deal with the leaders and an attempt of Congress to control the presidency, with the Budget and Impoundment Control Act and the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1974, limiting the influence of money in campaigns.
This distrust in power was accentuating by the lack of leadership of Ford and Carter. Ford was often presented by the press as ridiculous and stupid. Carter listened to his pollster, Patrick Cad dell, who told him that American people was suffering a spiritual crisis and that it needed a restoration of values. So Carter was at first a reassuring figure during the 1976 campaign because of his rural roots, his religious believes, his attack against the establishment, his claim on his new face, his morality. But very soon, the media realized he won't be the savior, and everyone was asking what Carter was doing at the presidency. On July 15, 1979, following the advice of Caddell, Carter delivered a speech to the nation, talking about the «crisis of confidence» and of the «malaise».
