On this day, July 15, 1979, Jimmy Carter went on TV.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Jimmy Carter TV speech tonight 1979 on “crisis of confidence”: "We are at a turning point…One…path leads to fragmentation and self-interest…All the promises of our future point to another path...of common purpose and the restoration of American values”:

Link to tweet

[sandensea]

1. Billed by the media as the "malaise speech" - when he never used the word

Goes to show that even when most journalists are Democrats (well, of course) - what the bosses say, goes.

[Yavin4]

2. There were reports from 2016 that if a NY Times writer wrote a tough piece on Hillary, nothing

would happen, but if a reporter wrote a tough piece on Trump, they got called into the editor's office.

[sandensea]

5. I remember that - and who doubts it!

They were clearly in the tank for Cheeto - not least because vulture fund king Paul Singer had recently lent them money.

In return for a say in the editorial line, of course.

I'm sure many staffers at the Times hated the arrangement - but what the boss says, goes.

[misanthrope]

3. Carter proved definitively

if you sit down and deliver the unvarnished truth to Americans like they're adults, addressing complex matters of sobriety and nuance, that they will make you pay dearly for it. Willful ignorance has a siren call.

That marked the beginning of our long slide into the place we are now and it wasn't Carter's fault. It was ours.

[tblue37]

4. Walter Mondale proved that, too, in the next election campaign:

"Let's tell the truth. It must be done, it must be done. Mr. Reagan will raise taxes, and so will I. He won't tell you. I just did."