Unresolved rage at the Nixon administration, and widespread Main-Stream Media condemnation of a good but not especially assertive man, Gerald Ford. If Ford so much as stumbled, snide remarks of "Playing football without a helmet" were repeated again and again.
Yes. It was all about Watergate. People who didn't live through it cannot fathom what a big story Watergate was at the time. Aside from the terrorist attacks on 9/11/01, no story in recent times is even close.
It was everywhere: the TV news, newspapers, sitcoms, billboards, talk shows......everywhere. Afternoon soap operas and game shows were canceled for weeks at a time so witness after witness could testify on live TV, hour after hour after hour. It was the most pervasive news story of my lifetime.
I remember watching the Tonight Show with my mom. David Steinberg was the guest host, and when he walked on stage my mom said "If he says something about Watergate, I'll scream! I'm sick of hearing about it!"
The first words out of his mouth: "The Watergate investigation........." That's just the way it was in 1973-1974.
By 1976, people were sick of it. Most viewed Nixon as a crook and Ford as his enabler for:
1. being hand picked by Nixon to succeed him; and
2. pardoning Nixon for any crimes he may have committed during the Watergate scandal.
Most just wanted to sweep the whole thing away, and Carter was a fresh face who smiled a lot and promised change.
Even then, it was a very close election, with Carter barely pulling out a win late in the night.
Well yeah ... I guess my question should be, why the hell did the Democrats settle for Carter? At least Clinton had that used-car-salesman thing going for him, "I feel your pain" and all that. But even from a Dem's point of view, I can't see the appeal of Jimmy Carter.