Carter Campaign Manager Tim Kraft took a leave of absence amid charges of cocaine use (that still raised eyebrows in 1980).

Bob Edwards (NPR Morning Edition): “President Carter is without a key man in his campaign this morning. Tim Kraft, the national Carter-Mondale Campaign Manager is taking a leave of absence, while the Special Prosecutor investigates charges that Kraft used cocaine when he was a member of the President’s staff. Those claims were made by a White House aide to a Special Prosecutor who was investigating similar charges against Hamilton Jordan, who was then White House Chief of Staff and now a top Carter strategist.”

Detroit laid off 15% of its Police force. Strikes were popular in September, with teachers all over the country going on strike, Actors on strike, Air-Traffic Controllers were thinking about going on strike. Turkey was heading into Martial Law. We were still knee-deep in recession and it was pretty much a mess everywhere.

Sort of like today only thirty years later.