Carter didn't the mistake it was the people who elected him. What a friggin disaster.
If Ford had not pardoned Nixon so quickly, or if he had not made the gaffe about Poland in one of the debates, or if Dole had not made the crack about "Democrat wars" in his debate in 1976, maybe the Carter presidency would have been one of those historical might-have-beens (like the Henry Clay presidency or the Alton Parker presidency)...and we all would have been better off.