yesterday, about 50,000 democrats in iowa met in caucus to choose delegates for their state party convention. former georgia governor jimmy carter did extremely well. the iowa caucus was something no one ever paid attention to. but carter and his team said, hey, if we go and we win, the media is going to treat us look a serious political front-runner. mr. carter is also deeply religious. he praise in public and speaks openly about his religious beliefs. carter was a person who you thought would lead america to some kind of spiritual redemption. which at the time we really needed. nothing has happened to night to change the feeling that jimmy carter is on his way to a kind of coronation in madison square garden. [ applause ] the battle for the republican nomination turned out to be really close.
than they were last november when sadat went to jerusalem to meet begin. after begin returned the visit, the enthusiasm dropped off. while the world watched, sadat and begin took to bickering and negotiations built down. jimmy carter took advantage of sadat s willingness to talk to the israelis. i think he thought he might be able to do something that his predecessors couldn t. it was a huge gamble. good afternoon, the stage is set and the participants are now beginning to arrive here in the washington area. president carter, egyptian president, anwar sadat and, president begin will sit down in the solitude of camp david. failure here would increase the impression that is being reflected in the public opinion polls thlt mr. carter is a nice man but inept president. hundred of reporters here, interviewing each other. what the three are discussing whether the talks are friendly, intense, we don t know because of unprecedented secrecy.
carter alienated the powers that be in congress. so when jimmy carter begin to falter he didn t have friend coming out and speaking for him. in fact, i was getting calls from democrats criticizing him. i have always heard about the advise and consent role of the congress. so far they have been a little stronger on the advice than hey have the consent. carter in harts a financial mess and there was no magic wand to cure it all. he needed a big feather in his cap quickly. it is almost a white house cliche when a president is in trouble at home his counselors advise a trip abroad. a president on the road. his first overseas trip to the middle east and western europe. mr. carter met not only with anwar sadat of egypt but king hussein of jordan, king khalid of saudi arabia and the shah of iran. the united states had always backed the shah of iran and goes back to 1953 in fact when
a sitting president of the united states testifying before a congressional committee. the committee will be in order. i had just been out of law school for a few years. i was the last person on that subcommittee to ask a question. and i thought for sure somebody in the subcommittee would ask president ford the tough questions about the pardon. nobody asked the questions. i would like to point out, mr. president, that circumstances of the pardon which you issued, the secrecy with which it was issued made people question whether or not in fact it was a deal. mrs. holtzman i repeat with emphasis if we had had an indictment, a trial, a conviction, that the attention of the president, the congress and the american people would have been diverted from the problems that we have to solve. ford now looks very smart in history for issuing the pardon. it did not look that great at the time. he took a beating for it.
schlessinger, oil experts and three governors. now he has been up there eight days and there is still no word on when the camp david domestic summit will end and the president will come down from the mountain. one all most expects the president to alight from his chopper carrying with him two tablets of stone. sources say mr. carter will address what he calls a malaise affecting the nation. this is an abc news special report. 15 seconds, sir. stand by. good evening. i want to speak to you first tonight about a subject even more serious than energy or inflation. it is a crisis of confidence. for the first time in the history of our country a majority of our people believe that the next five years will be worse than the past five years. too many of us now tend to worship self-indulgence and consumption, human identity is