He had also just received splendid news: Gallup had his approval rating at 54 percent. Their last pre-hostage sounding had him at 29 percent, his lowest ever. The pollsters at NBC found that 67 percent of the public approved of his handling of the Iran crisis, with 71 percent maintaining that he was doing the most he possibly could. Call it patriotism, call it leadership chic. But three days after Kennedy’s remarks, 100 percent in a much smaller survey—the fifty state Democratic chairmen—said Carter’s handling of Iran was helping his political standing.
