Carter sought reforms to the country's welfare, health care, and tax systems, but was largely unsuccessful, partly due to poor relations with Democrats in Congress.

He continued the conciliatory late Cold War policies of his predecessors, normalizing relations with China and pursuing further Strategic Arms Limitation Talks with the Soviet Union.

The final fifteen months of Carter's presidential tenure were marked by several additional major crises, including the Iran hostage crisis and economic malaise.

Mo Udall, Sargent Shriver, Birch Bayh, Fred R. Harris, Terry Sanford, Henry M. Jackson, Lloyd Bentsen, and George Wallace all sought the nomination, and many of these candidates were better known than Carter.

[26] To oversee the administration's foreign policy, Carter relied on several members of the Trilateral Commission, including Vance and National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski.

[29] First Lady Rosalynn Carter emerged as an important part of the administration, sitting in on several Cabinet meetings and serving as a sounding board, advisor, and surrogate for the president.

[40][b] Unreturned phone calls, verbal insults, and an unwillingness to trade political favors soured many on Capitol Hill and affected the president's ability to enact his agenda.

[43] President Carter attempted to woo O'Neill, Senate Majority Leader Robert Byrd, and other members of Congress through personal engagement, but he was generally unable to rally support for his programs through these meetings.

Carter signed several measures designed to address unemployment in 1977, including an extension of the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act, but he continued to focus primarily on reducing deficits and inflation.

[53] In 1973, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), based in the Middle East, had reduced output to raise world prices and to hurt Israel and its allies, including the United States.

[55] The United States continued to face energy issues in the following years, and during the winter of 1976–1977 natural gas shortages forced the closure of many schools and factories, leading to the temporary layoffs of hundreds of thousands of workers.

His chief goals were to limit the growth of energy demand to an increase of two percent a year, cut oil imports in half, and establish a new strategic petroleum reserve containing a six-month supply.

In July 1979, as the energy crisis continued, Carter met with a series of business, government, labor, academic, and religious leaders in an effort to overhaul his administration's policies.

[71] Despite those legislative victories, in 1980 Congress rescinded Carter's imposition of a surcharge on imported oil,[c] and rejected his proposed Energy Mobilization Board, a government body that was designed to facilitate the construction of power plants.

[130] Carter supported the policy of affirmative action, and his administration submitted an amicus curiae brief to the Supreme Court while it heard the case of Regents of the University of California v. Bakke.

[150] Although foreign policy was not his highest priority at first, a series of worsening crises made it increasingly the focus of attention regarding the Soviet Union, Afghanistan, Iran, and the global energy crisis.

Guided by General Donn A. Starry and the concept that was to become AirLand Battle, Carter and his administration approved the initial outlays for the A-10, AH-64, HIMARS, Bradley IFV, M109 Paladin, Patriot missile, M1 Abrams,[155] and the Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk.

Carter also cut back or terminated military aid to Augusto Pinochet of Chile, Ernesto Geisel of Brazil, and Jorge Rafael Videla of Argentina, all of whom he criticized for human rights violations.

Policy disputes reached their most contentious point during the 1979 fall of Pol Pot's genocidal regime of Democratic Kampuchea following the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia, when Brzezinski prevailed in having the administration refuse to recognize the new Cambodian government due to its support by the Soviet Union.

[167] His administration also generally refrained from criticizing human rights abuses in the Philippines, Indonesia, South Korea, Iran, Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and North Yemen.

[177] Historian George C. Herring states Carter and Brzezinski both saw Afghanistan as a potential "trap" that could expend Soviet resources in a fruitless war, and the U.S. began sending aid to the mujahideen rebels in mid-1979.

[183][184] Pakistani leader Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq had previously had poor relations with Carter due to Pakistan's nuclear program and the execution of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, but the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and instability in Iran reinvigorated the traditional Pakistan–United States alliance.

[189] Returning to a policy of containment, the United States reconciled with Cold War allies and increased the defense budget, leading to a new arms race with the Soviet Union.

[200] Carter, Vance, and Brzezinski all viewed Iran as a key Cold War ally, not only for the oil it produced but also because of its influence in OPEC and its strategic position between the Soviet Union and the Persian Gulf.

[208] Released in 2017, a declassified memo produced by the CIA in 1980 concluded "Iranian hardliners – especially Ayatollah Khomeini" were "determined to exploit the hostage issue to bring about President Carter's defeat in the November elections."

After Carter announced that the United States would provide "open arms for the tens of thousands of refugees seeking freedom from Communist domination", Cuban Americans arranged the Mariel boatlift.

[232] In April 1979, Attorney General Bell appointed Paul J. Curran as a special counsel to investigate loans made to the peanut business owned by Carter by a bank controlled by Bert Lance.

[234] The investigation was concluded in October 1979, with Curran announcing that no evidence had been found to support allegations that funds loaned from the National Bank of Georgia had been diverted to Carter's 1976 presidential campaign.

[250] The Carter campaign felt confident that the country would reject the conservative viewpoints espoused by Reagan, and there were hopeful signs with regards to the economy and the Iranian hostage crisis.

[253] Developments of the 1970s, including the Supreme Court case of Roe v. Wade and the withdrawal of Bob Jones University's tax-exempt status, convinced many evangelical Protestants to become engaged in politics for the first time.