Propelled by widespread public disillusionment with government following the Nixon revelations and Gerald Ford's pardon of the former president, Georgia's Democratic Governor Jimmy Carter ran as an outsider who promised to restore the public's faith in the executive branch.  His independence in office infuriated his own party and did little to win support from the Republicans.  When the American embassy in Iran was seized and its occupants taken hostage, Carter's inability to decisively deal with the situation branded him, justly or unjustly, as ineffective.  As a result, he fell an easy prey to Ronald Reagan in the 1980 election.

Brief Biography                        Campaign and Election Information

"The American public, from time to time, wishes to see the trustee who looks neither right nor left, but only up to the heavens and down to the work before him," says presidential scholar Richard Neustadt.  But is an independent cast of mind the best approach to the presidency?  The four men profiled in this hour pursued a course that took little account of political affiliation—to be presidents, in essence, without being politicians.  Taken together, they comprise a cautionary tale—all had difficult presidencies, and neither of the two who sought a second term was granted one.

A word about this show from the producers.

For lesson plans developed for this program, go to Lessons on the Series.
For discussion questions on the featured presidents in this program, go to Issues to Ponder.

America's second president had a tough act to follow.  Flinty, egotistical, and deeply principled, Adams was perpetually overshadowed by the magisterial presence of George Washington.  Adams tried to maintain what he called his "stubborn independence" to steer a course between the competing political interests within his own Federalist Party.  His efforts were further hindered by the actions of Thomas Jefferson's Democratic-Republican Party.  In the end, Adams only succeeded in alienating others.  For nearly a year Adams demonstrated his independence from the federal government by working from his home in Massachusetts, some three hundred miles away.  After a single term he was supplanted by his arch-rival, Thomas Jefferson.

Brief Biography                         Campaign and Election Information

An unrepentant slave owner whose son-in-law would one day be president of the Confederacy, Taylor was propelled into the White House by the force of sheer celebrity—his heroism in the Mexican war had made him the man of the moment.  "Part of Taylor's appeal," says narrator and Time magazine correspondent Hugh Sidey, "lay in the fact that no one knew where he stood on any major issue."  When he refused to support the establishment of slavery in the new territories won from Mexico and threatened to lead an army to prevent the secession of Southern states, he lost the support of his own party.  His sudden death put Vice President Millard Fillmore into the White House.

Brief Biography                       Campaign and Election Information

After the corruption of the Grant presidency, the nation turned to a religious, impeccably honest Civil War hero from Cincinnati. His election was hotly disputed, and he entered the White House under a cloud, but his fundamental decency won out. He had pledged to serve only one term, and he kept his word; in those four years he carried out a much-needed reform of the Civil Service, vetoed a bill prejudicial towards Chinese Americans, was an early environmentalist, and left Washington a much more ethical place than he had found it.

Brief Biography                       Campaign and Election Information

John Adams (1797–1801):  Going It Alone

Zachary Taylor (1849–50):  "Old Rough and Ready"

Rutherford B. Hayes (1877–81):  "No Fondness for Political Life"

Jimmy Carter (1977–81):  The Outsider

THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT
Program 3:  "An Independent Cast of Mind"