Welcome to the American Story. Stories about what it is that makes America beautiful.

Heartbreaking, funny, inspiring, and endlessly interesting.

This is Chris Flannery with the Clermont Institute.

I call this one.

Miracle on Ice.

It is somehow always the best of times and the worst of times.

But the winter of 1980 in America felt like it had more than its share of the worst.

Unemployment was high. inflation was raging.

People were grateful to get a home loan

with an interest rate under 12%.

A continuing energy crisis produced gas rationing and long anxious lines of cars at gas

stations across the country.

And there was something that ran deeper than inflation, unemployment, or energy shortages.

The nation seemed to be living out the moral and spiritual crisis President Jimmy Carter had

spoken of months earlier in a depressing nationally televised speech

that became known as the Malay's speech. After cancelling a scheduled 4th of July

speech, the president had mysteriously disappeared for 10 days,

stirring rumors that he was ill or had left the country.

He had actually gone on a 10-day personal survey of the American people, and he returned to report on his findings.

It wasn't pretty.

Carter concluded that all the legislation in the world can't fix what's wrong with America.

We were suffering a crisis of confidence,

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