Out of the Rose Garden

And into the heat of the presidential campaign

At least one hostage was freed by Jimmy Carter's aborted rescue raid: the one in the White House. Five days after the failed mission to save the 53 American captives in Tehran, the President jettisoned his six-month-old pledge not to campaign until the hostages were home. Speaking at an energy briefing in the East Room, Carter lamely explained that the nation's problems "are manageable enough for me to leave the White House for a limited travel schedule, including some campaigning if I choose."

Even Carter winced afterward over that statement, which was made in response to a question planted by a White House staffer. Returning to the Oval Office, the President said to a top aide: "Manageable was not a good choice of words, was it?" Indeed not, but the aide and Carter's other political strategists did not much care what excuse he used to leave the Rose Garden. For weeks, they had been telling him that both his standing with the public and his fund raising were suffering from his stay-at-home strategy. Then came the unsuccessful raid in Iran, followed three days later by Secretary of State Cyrus Vance's resignation, which amounted to a stinging vote of no confidence that was only partly offset by Carter's choice of Senator Edmund Muskie as Secretary of State. The President decided that he had little choice but to begin campaigning. Said a top aide: "He's tired of getting dumped on for everything he does. He's ready to do battle."

In fact, the sands had barely settled in Iran's Dasht-e-Kavir desert before Carter took to the road. On Sunday he slipped away from the White House to an undisclosed location to meet with 150 of the commandos who participated in the raid. Afterward, the President made sure that Americans learned of the visit by emotionally describing to Democratic congressional leaders how Colonel Charlie Beckwith, commander of the assault force, had apologized for the failure. The teary-eyed President embraced Beckwith and replied: "You have nothing to apologize for. I thank you."

The next day, Carter flew to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, where he visited four of the men who were badly burned in the desert conflagration. It was his first trip outside the White House-Camp David axis since last Oct. 29, and though he avoided overt politicking, it was a well-photographed journey. It evidently did nothing to hurt him in the Texas primary, which he swept five days later. Senator Edward Kennedy, who spent a minimum of time campaigning in Texas, avoided any direct criticism of the hostage rescue attempt, though he tried to get political mileage out of the raid by visiting the wounded commandos in San Antonio. But Kennedy was less reticent about Carter's return to active campaigning. Said he: "We have had a failed military intrusion into Iran. [Carter] has lost five of the last seven primaries [and state caucuses] and now he is willing to come out of the White House. I think the decision is quite clearly a political judgment."

Partly to deflect such criticism, the President plans to begin his campaigning this week in Philadelphia, more than two weeks after the Pennsylvania primary. Thereafter he will make at least one trip a week, usually to stage-managed town meetings or speeches before large audiences. White House staffers tried hard to deny that Carter's motivation for leaving the Rose Garden is political. Snapped an aide: "It's not even necessary if you just look at the delegate numbers."

True enough: Carter holds a commanding lead over Kennedy in delegate votes. But other numbers--those of the pollsters--suggest that the President will face a serious problem in November. An ABC News-Harris Survey, taken the same day that the rescue mission's failure was announced, showed former California Governor Ronald Reagan leading Carter by 42% to 33%; in February, Carter led Reagan by 64% to 32%.

The man who probably has the most to gain from Carter's slumping popularity, Reagan, blasted the Administration as he swung through Texas. Though he supported the rescue attempt, Reagan criticized Carter for waiting so long and charged that the botched mission had worsened the crisis. He also castigated Carter for not spending enough to strengthen the nation's defense as it entered what Reagan described as "one of the most dangerous decades in the history of Western civilization."

Reagan did more stumping in Texas than he had originally planned, hitting five cities in three days, to blunt the challenge of Texan George Bush, who spent some $500,000 campaigning in the state, compared with Reagan's $150,000.

Bush's big spending paid off in a moral victory in the Texas popular vote, enabling him to finish close on the heels of the front-running Reagan. This surprising showing is certain to keep Bush's candidacy alive, perhaps at least through June 3, when California and eight other states hold primaries. Even before the Texas results started coming in, Bush said: "I'm going to stay in this race all the way." That might prove discouraging. In the crucial Texas race for G.O.P. Convention votes, Reagan seemed likely to win roughly three-fourths of the delegates. He also crushed Bush in the Arizona, Oklahoma, Missouri, Minnesota and Guam delegate selections.

While Democrats and Republicans were slugging it out in Texas, Independent John Anderson spent his first week of campaigning without a party by marching through Georgia, West Virginia, Michigan and Massachusetts despite polls showing him with only 20% of the vote and pundits' predictions that he will fail. Anderson's effort is as much crusade as campaign, and it is perhaps best summed up by the line he frequently paraphrases from Robert Louis Stevenson: "It is often better to journey with hope than to arrive."

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