Warming Up to Jimmy

Four years ago, the very name McGovern sent shudders through the American business community and drove executives almost unanimously into the Nixon camp. Now, the name of Jimmy Carter is stirring a totally different reaction. This early in the campaign, Carter already is picking up a few business votes--including that of Henry Ford II, chairman of Ford Motor--and has got most businessmen at least to regard him without animosity. Says Seattle Investment Banker Robert Block: "People no longer seem to equate Democrats with doomsday."

More than anything else, it is Carter's personality and style that cause businessmen to warm to him as they rarely do to a Democrat. "Nobody knows what a President is going to do," says John Bunting, chairman of Philadelphia's First Pennsylvania Bank and an early Carter fund raiser, though he is an independent. "You are always betting on the person." United Air Lines Chairman Edward Carlson, long a fan of President Ford's, finds Carter a "pretty impressive individual" because of the management talents displayed by his long climb from obscurity to the nomination. Des Moines Department Store Executive Charles Dutchin thinks Carter "is going to lead rather than be led."

Carter scores best with those businessmen who meet him face to face. Last week three Carter supporters--Henry Ford, who does not identify himself with either party, and Democrats Edgar Bronfman, chairman of Seagram Co., and J. Paul Austin, chairman of Coca-Cola--threw a meet-Jimmy lunch at Manhattan's "21" Club-and invited 49 of their colleagues. Carter assured the assembled executives that he favors "a minimum of interference of the Federal Government in free enterprise," and stressed his receptivity to criticism and advice. He also said he "would not do anything to minimize" the investment activities of multinational corporations. "I think I could feel comfortable with him," said David Mahoney, chairman of Norton Simon, after the lunch. "And for an avowed Republican, that's progress." Lehman Bros. Chairman Peter Petersen, who was briefly a member of the Nixon Cabinet, and Pan American Chief Executive William Seawell, also a Republican, were among other guests who found Carter impressive.

Waiting and Weighing. One big reason for Carter's acceptability to many businessmen is his success in resisting political pigeonholing. Allied Chemical Chairman (and former Commerce Secretary) John Connor, an early Carterite, finds the Georgian "somewhat on the liberal side. I think we need a liberal President to work with the Democratic Congress." Says Bell & Howell Chairman Donald Frey, a Republican: "I have a gut feeling that Carter is fundamentally conservative."

Precisely this protean quality, however, causes many businessmen to take a wait-and-see position. Says Philip Bogue, president of the Portland (Ore.) Chamber of Commerce and a Republican: "I think there is a more positive attitude here that businessmen could live with a Democrat in the White House--assuming Carter clarifies some of his positions."

Actually, Carter has been about as specific on economic issues as presidential candidates usually get (TIME, June 28). What businessmen who fault him for vagueness may really mean is that, though they like him personally, his views are liberal enough to make them uneasy. Most important, Carter has made it clear that his top priority would be reducing unemployment, primarily through Government stimulation of the economy. That stress wins approval from some executives, prominently including Bronfman, who believe that the Ford Administration has been lackadaisical in accepting high unemployment. But Carter's position worries other executives, who fear that the Democratic nominee is not sufficiently alert to the danger that an all-out drive to cut joblessness could spark runaway inflation.

Executives are also uneasy about Carter's pledges to embark on ambitious --and expensive--social programs like national health insurance. Carter stressed at his lunch with businessmen last week that he would take at least a year after he enters the White House to fill in the details of his promise to overhaul the nation's tax code. Still, some executives cannot suppress the feeling that he intends to place too big a burden on corporations and rich individuals. Such tax policies, says Richard D. Hill, chairman of the First National Bank of Boston, "mean discouraging investment."

Some businessmen see Carter's choice of a running mate as a sign of depressing liberalism. "Mondale strongly defuses my interest in Carter," says Robert A. Charpie, president of Boston's Cabot Corp., an investment house. Republican Dillard Munford, head of an Atlanta retailing conglomerate, regards Mondale as a "captive of the unions."

Still, most businessmen are giving Carter the benefit of the doubt for now. On Wall Street, for example, Carter is seen as the least threatening Democrat in years. Says Gary Helms, portfolio strategist for L.F. Rothschild & Co.: "I think the plants are out there burping, and I don't think Carter in his first hundred days will do anything to change that." Many businessmen agree and look forward to a Carter-Ford race as an almost ideal choice between candidates, either of whom would be acceptable.

* Reporters lunching downstairs invited Faye West, proprietress of Faye's B-B-Q Villa, a restaurant in Americus, Ga., where the Carter family frequently dines. Mrs. West found 21's food good but the prices "just outrageous."

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