Confidence plays a major role in Carter's speech—there's a whole dang crisis about it.

But what's so particularly telling about this speech (and what's so particularly controversial) is that Carter sees the nation's issues with confidence as having little to do with the oil crisis, inflation, unemployment or everything to do with Americans themselves.

When speaking about this concern, he clarifies that the issue is not about "our political and civil liberties. They will endure." (26) He further contends that the problem isn't with "the outward strength of America, a nation that is at peace tonight everywhere in the world, with unmatched economic power and military might." (26)

Okay, hold up. We're confused. Isn't the whole point of this speech to address the political and economic concerns of the country?

If you're thinking that's the case, like Goldilocks on her first two tries, you'd be either too hot or too cold.

The crisis in confidence is a symbol for what Carter feels to be a declining sense of purpose in the American people, a fading sense of optimism, one that is new to the country. Check it out:

Our people are losing that faith, not only in government itself but in the ability as citizens to serve as the ultimate rulers and shapers of our democracy. (30)

He says that all the bad stuff which has happened recently, the assassinations of JFK, MLK and RFK, the Watergate Scandal, the War in Vietnam, has caused the American people to doubt themselves. Carter attributes America's inability to solve the energy crisis as the direct result of this crisis of confidence, these lingering feelings of self-doubt and uncertainty. Hmm. No wonder people thought Carter was talking down to them.