(5 of 11)
For that speech, as well as follow-up addresses the next day in Kansas City and Detroit, Carter earned good reviews for his newly assertive style of delivery. He was helped here by coaching from Image-Maker Gerald Rafshoon. Before Carter's Sunday night speech, he went to Rafshoon's quarters in the Executive Office Building to learn how to move his arms and clench his fist to show forcefulness. After the lesson, Carter ran through the speech and watched a videotaped replay, then practiced again, until he and Rafshoon were satisfied.
In his speeches, Carter blamed the oil mess on OPEC's price increases, Congress's lethargy, federal bureaucrats' isolation on the "island" of Washington−and himself. Said Carter: "I've made some mistakes as President. People said, 'Mr. President, you haven't been leading our nation,' and I've learned my lesson." Standing in shirtsleeves in Detroit, he told 2,500 members of the Communications Workers of America, almost pleadingly: "I will do the best that I can."
Carter's approval rating spurted eleven points in a New York Times-CBS poll, to 37%−the first upturn since a survey last March. Even critics who faulted his energy program as too timid regarded it as a much needed beginning (see ECONOMY & BUSINESS). Said Democratic National Chairman John White, who thought he saw the makings of a re-election winner in 1980: "I took down my 'for sale' sign this morning."
The President basked in the applause for a day and then, on Tuesday morning, he set in motion his astounding purge, undoing much of the good he had done himself. It began at a 9:30 a.m. staff meeting in the White House's Roosevelt Room. Said Carter to his senior aides: "I didn't come to pat everybody on the back. Every one of you knows what you have done right. But there has not been enough done right." He thereupon announced Jordan's elevation to chief of staff and shortly afterward left the room. Forty-five minutes later, Carter and Jordan strode into the Cabinet Room, where the twelve members and U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young were waiting. They knew that something big was up; they had already been told not to bring any aides. Said the summonses: "Principals only."
According to one participant, Carter opened the meeting by "scolding the members for disloyalty." The President recapitulated his Camp David decision about asserting new leadership. He said that he would be altering his own "life-style." He said that he had appointed Jordan chief of staff and that there would be Cabinet changes. In the tense atmosphere that followed, Jordan announced that he too was changing his "life-style." Uncertain whether he was joking, no one laughed. Carter went around the table, ladling out criticism and praise. He told Young that several people at the Camp David summit had severely faulted him for his embarrassing statements at the U.N. "On the other hand," said Carter, "Andy is responsible for improved relations with about 50 countries in the world. That outweighs the criticism."