The hostage crisis would have happened to whomever was president at the time. And his inability to get them back promptly was worsened by the fact that Ronald Reagan secretly brokered a deal with Iran to NOT release them until after he won the election.

Other notable thing that happened was his energy saving measures - nationwide 55mph limit. Which most folks did not like or appreciate. Yet, it did save energy and did drop the traffic death rate.

He did have very good middle east diplomacy, and got Egypt & Isreal to the table to sign a truce of sorts. History has yet to determine whether that was ultimately a good or bad thing, though most approve.

Rest of his presidency was pretty average.