For a variety of reasons, I think Americans have long been more anti-gov’t than anti-corporate.
But the possibility that it could have been different . . .
In reference to the 1979 energy crisis, Americans were suspicious of the oil companies. And with the Ford Pinto, and the company deciding that it was cheaper to pay out settlements than fix the problem—Holy Shit!—Lee Iacocca could have been, and should have been, the all-time poster boy of corporate irresponsibility.
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And Carter doesn’t need to do great, he doesn’t need to “excel” (in fact, that may be part of the problem). He just needs to show himself not a flake, and instead very much a steady eddie in responding to and working the problem.