He suffered defeat and the Carter-Kennedy confrontation, John Farrell laments, " split their party, crippled the progressive cause for a generation, cost the Democrats their hold on Congress, and put Ronald Reagan in the Oval Office" .

约翰·法雷尔 (John Farrell) 感叹道， 他遭遇失败， 卡特与肯尼迪的对抗“分裂了他们的政党，削弱了一代人的进步事业， 使民主党失去了对国会的控制权， 并让罗纳德·里根入主椭圆形办公室” 。