(3 of 6)
Trying to recover, Carter put in a brutal final week—26 cities in 15 states and more than 15,000 miles in the air. In the last 24 hours before the election, Carter stepped up his blitz in a desperate cross-country chase that took him 6,645 miles to six key states ("I need you, I need you, help us!" he implored the crowds) before touching down in Georgia's dawn fog on Tuesday morning so that he could vote in Plains. His throat was raspy. His right hand was scratched red from ceaseless, frantic "pressing the flesh" with the throngs that met him. He had put on pancake makeup to cover the red blotches on his face, but the signs of weariness showed through. He had scarcely slept since the latest hostage maneuvering broke early Sunday morning.
After voting with Rosalynn, Carter drove over to the railroad depot, the initial headquarters for his 1976 campaign, to greet an attentive crowd of 100 residents and 200 reporters. Suddenly, for the first time in public, he started to betray what he knew—that he was going to lose. While his aides dug their shoes into the red clay and stared at the ground, Carter gave a rambling talk for ten minutes about the accomplishments of his Administration. "I've tried to honor your commitment," he said at the end. "In the process, I've tried . . . " His voice broke, and tears welled up in his eyes. Rosalynn looked on in agony. Carter recovered his composure and ended quickly, "to honor my commitment to you. Don't forget to vote, everybody."
When the Carter party flew back to the White House, aides began working up the President's concession speech even before the first announcements were made. "I want to go out in style," Carter told his advisers. "I want this country to know it's going to have an orderly transition."
Later, Carter sat with his top aides in the family quarters on the second floor of the White House and watched the news of his defeat. "I lost it myself," he said. "I lost the debate too, and that hurt badly." He was composed, not vindictive, a man trying to analyze why the nation was rejecting him so emphatically. "I'm not bitter," he said. "Rosalynn is, but I'm not." Rosalynn agreed: "I'm bitter enough for all of us."
To make his concession speech, Carter appeared before his dispirited followers at 9:45 p.m., an hour and a quarter before the polls closed on the West Coast. By admitting defeat, Carter may well have discouraged Democrats from going to the polls and supporting other party members on the ticket; the timing of his speech was a small reminder of how little he had cared about party affairs and loyalties.