"He Can Catch Fire"

A rested Jimmy Carter pursues new campaigns

The son of Georgia had renewed his tan in Georgia's sun. His ten-day vacation on isolated Sapelo Island had been so relaxing that he wants to make it a regular refreshment stand. His jogs along the Atlantic had tightened a stomach already impressively taut for a man of 54. He had even cultivated a new hair style by shifting his part from right to left. And, as Jimmy Carter returned to the White House last week, he was in an upbeat mood, telling intimates that the nation's political climate was finally turning in his favor. Said one: "He knows that others don't see it that way yet, but that's how Jimmy feels. He thinks they'll come around."

There was very little in the news to buttress the President's buoyancy. The latest Consumer Price Index showed that inflation was running at an annual rate of 13%--the highest such rate in more than four years. A new Gallup poll indicated that Democrats prefer Senator Edward Kennedy by a hefty 58% to 31% over Carter as the nominee of their party in 1980. The oil companies were pressuring Congress to gut Carter's proposal for a tax on windfall profits when oil prices are decontrolled in June. And though at week's end negotiations between Washington and Moscow led to an exchange of five Soviet dissidents for two Soviet spies held in the U.S., the long stalled SALT negotiations remained stalled on the very edge of completion.

Undaunted by the array of difficulties confronting him, Carter plunged into his most active week since his diplomatic triumph in the Middle East. Carrying out a promise to Israel's Premier Menachem Begin, he went to the rotunda of the Capitol to attend a solemn ceremony in remembrance of the victims of the Nazi Holocaust. As former Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg wept openly, the President declared that it was fitting to "remember the terrible price paid for bigotry and hatred and also the terrible price paid for indifference and for silence." Carter said that he had vowed "to reaffirm our unshakable commitment that such an event will never recur on this earth again." The only way to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust, he said, was to "harness the outrage of our memories to banish all human oppression from the world."

Carter's two recurring themes of the week, however, were his new energy proposals and his arms-control plan. "He can catch fire with SALT and energy," said one of Carter's top aides. "They're the kind of fights he's best at." And on energy, the White House feels that it has a perfect villain in the oil companies. Carter raised his voice against that villain in an address to the National Academy of Sciences. Declaring that public opinion had swung behind his proposed tax on windfall profits, he claimed that his opponents "have now given up on that fight." Instead, he said, "their new strategy seems to be to try to hoodwink the American people by passing a tax that is in fact a charade." The aim of the oil companies, Carter argued, was to create "loopholes" in any tax and include a "plowback" provision, so they could put some $4 billion or $5 billion into exploration for new oil, while retaining about $6 billion anticipated under decontrol. Carter termed this a "plow under" and "kickback" scheme (see ECONOMY & BUSINESS).

The President flew to New York City to defend the imminent SALT treaty before a convention of the American Newspaper Publishers Association. Anticipating the ratification struggle looming in the Senate, Carter declared that the nuclear arsenals of the U.S. and U.S.S.R. are "essentially equivalent," and that "each side has the will and the means to prevent the other from achieving superiority." Neither side, he went on, can "exploit its nuclear weapons for political purposes" or use them "without facing almost certain suicide." One aim of SALT II, Carter said, is to check the Soviet momentum in building up its strategic arms.

On the controversial question of whether the U.S. could detect a Soviet violation of the treaty, the President insisted that "any cheating which might affect our national security would be discovered in time for us to respond fully." He said that the U.S. monitoring stations in Iran, lost in that country's recent revolution, were "only one of many intelligence sources that we use to follow Soviet strategic activities." He cited "photographic satellites and other systems," but claimed that the U.S. had "sensitive intelligence techniques that obviously cannot be disclosed in public."

The choice facing the nation, he concluded, is "between an imperfect world with a SALT agreement or an imperfect and more dangerous world without a SALT agreement." The wrong choice, he contended, could lead to "a dark nightmare of unrestrained arms competition."

From that somber address, which was delivered flatly and aroused little enthusiasm among the assembled publishers, the President flew on to New Hampshire, site of the nation's most important early presidential primary election next February. The purely political trip, financed by Democratic Party funds, showed that while Carter may often be disappointing in his official speeches, he remains an effective campaigner in more informal circumstances. At a "town meeting" in Portsmouth, he charmed his audience by shedding his pin-striped blue jacket and answering a wide-ranging series of citizens' questions.

Carter won applause by being candid. In a state heavily dependent on imported oil for its heating, Carter said that the price of this fuel will rise. "I'm not going to try to sugar-coat it--the energy future will not be pleasant for any of us."

He said he had ordered that reserves of home heating oil be built up to provide adequate heat next winter, but this probably would mean gasoline shortages in New England instead. Yet he also promised to seek tax credits for people who buy wood-burning stoves, an increasingly common practice in the forested state. As for inflation, said Carter: "I'm not going to kid you about this. We are going to see high inflation figures coming out week after week for the next few months. There is no easy solution to it. And frankly, anyone who says there is, is either a liar or a fool." Even that remark evoked applause.

While antinuclear demonstrators paraded outside Portsmouth High School, a few heckled Carter inside the hall. One shouted "Another lie!" when the President contended that polls show most people favor nuclear energy (Carter was right; even since Three Mile River, nuclear power plants have won majority approval in recent polls). Fielding 15 questions in an hour and clearly enjoying himself, Carter addressed many questioners by name. He even invited Paloma Kressman, 10, to the White House. She had asked whether Amy Carter ever bragged about her father being President. His answer: "No, she probably apologizes."

The campaigning continued as Carter flew to Manchester, where he attended a fund-raising cocktail party ($500 a couple) and dinner ($125 a person). Some 700 Democrats bought dinner tickets and warmly received a 35-minute speech in which the President again berated oil companies and claimed that to reject SALT II would lead to "unnecessary military spending and increased global instability and the threat of a devastating war." As for the economy, Carter noted that New Hampshire had 10% unemployment when Gerald Ford was President ("That's Republican economics at work") and it was now cut in half ("That's why I like Democratic economics better").

Returning to Washington, Carter converted some of his anti-oil company rhetoric into action by signing his windfall profits tax proposal and sending it up to Capitol Hill, where passage in some form is expected. The President's campaign against emasculation of the tax will continue as he makes another political foray this week into Iowa and California.

Jimmy Carter seemed to be running on two levels at the same time. He took a commendably high road on SALT, meeting his presidential responsibilities, but he won no ringing applause. He took the low road on oil, and was cheered for portraying the oil companies as greedy ogres. Such ambiguity worked to Carter's great political advantage in 1976. Apparently he hopes it will work once again in the difficult campaign ahead.

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