A history look at the 1978 midterm elections when the economy was in a ditch

[bigdarryl]

The democrats only lost 15 seats in that election and Carters approval was like I believe 49% http://losts.net/U.S._House_elections,_1978

[davepc]

1. And then Regan won in 1980. Hard to take a lot of comfort in that.

[denbot]

2. And now we are seeing the end results of the Regan Revolution.

Any democratic candidate could run against that and win.

[bigdarryl]

3. true Carter had a Middle east hostage crisis that I think lost him that election

but the bottom line on the midterms back then was as bad as people say Carter was he only lost 15 house seats.I don't know what the campaigning was back then thats another history lesson people must look into

[Sherman A1]

4. Agreed

along with significant inflation as I recall, having lived through those years.

[LiberalFighter]

6. Carter didn't lose it.

Reagan stole it when his people were negotiating illegally to delay releasing the prisoners.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

5. The Unemployment Rate Was Six Percent And GDP Growth Was Three Percent

Incipient inflation didn't occurr until 1979; most of which was caused by the oil embargo on Iran.

[WI_DEM]

7. Actually the economy wasn't in a ditch yet in 1978. Unemployment under Carter had gone down to

around 6% from a high of 7.7% that he inherited and the economy was not in recession and was growing. It was in 1979 with OPEC gas shortages that things really took a turn for the worse--interest rates and inflation really went sky high and that led to a modest recession in 1980 which caused a hike in unemployment.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

8. Exactly

What created the great recession at the end of Carter's term and the beginning of Reagan's term was the artificially high interest rates engineered by Fed Chief, Paul Volcker, to bring down inflation. Once the Fed lowered the rates the economy took off. This would have happened regardless of who was president. Presidents of both parties get too too much blame and too much credit for the economy. This time it is "our" president who will get the blame.