I was reading a book on Iran-US relation called "The Persian Puzzle" and the author is one of the Dems, himself.
He mentioned in his book that nobody (EU Governments and Japan) cared about Jimmy the crap during the hostage crisis and nobody followed his lead seriously to put economic/oil embargo on Iran.
Jimmy Carter was trying to portray himself as a man of peace. The real truth is that he didn't have the backbone to do anything. He just allowed himself to be pushed around.