They've Got a Little List

On a shelf in Carter-Mondale headquarters in Washington rest 25 thick black loose-leaf binders. They are crammed with ammunition for the Democrats' effort to make Ronald Reagan the chief issue of the presidential election campaign--thousands of past Reagan comments that Carter's strategists consider to be insensitive, silly, simplistic or just plain dumb. Following the quotes are notations of their sources: newspaper clippings, official Reagan statements, transcripts of his speeches and news conferences.

The careful research has not kept the candidates' speech-writers from twisting Reagan's words on occasion. For example, Vice President Walter Mondale, in his 17-point fusillade against Reagan at the Democratic National Convention, quoted Reagan as calling many federal programs that help blacks and Hispanics "demeaning" and "insulting." Reagan did indeed use those words, in a June interview with TIME, but in a somewhat different way. Said he: "The Democratic philosophy over the years of going to blacks and Hispanics with more offers of handouts as the way to get their vote has actually been demeaning and insulting to them." But Mondale was right on the mark in most of his quotes of egregious remarks by Reagan, including his 1976 charge that "fascism was really the basis for the New Deal," and a claim put forth by Reagan last January that "the minimum wage has caused more misery and unemployment than anything since the Great Depression."

In the months ahead, Carter and Mondale aides expect to draw ever more frequently from material in the black binders. For instance, either candidate can hit back hard at Reagan's bid for the black vote by recalling his 1976 claim in a Fort Lauderdale, Fla., speech that working people at a supermarket checkout counter were "outraged" when they saw a "strapping young buck" buy T-bone steaks with food stamps. Carter-Mondale researchers have also found that in January Reagan said of U.S. attempts to prevent more countries from obtaining nuclear arms: "I just don't think it's any of our business." The next day, he called federal urban aid programs "one of the biggest phonies that we have in the system."

Republicans regard the Carter-Mondale tactic as dirty politics. But Reagan professes no unease and refuses to make a point-by-point rebuttal to the attempt "to portray me as a combination of Ebenezer Scrooge and the mad bomber." Instead, says Reagan, he will concentrate on attacking Carter's record as President.

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