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THE BATTALION
WEDNESDAY, APR. 14, 1976
Carter: on the campaign trail
Editor’s Note: The following is
the first of three weekly articles on
the campaign tactics and styles of
the top three Democratic presiden
tial contenders. It focuses on Jimmy
Carter.
By DAVE GOLDBERG
Associated Press Writer
About 150 people were milling
outside the Masonic Temple in
Peekskill, N.Y. when Jimmy Carter
arrived just after dark. He waded
through outstretched hands into a
room filled with people, smoke and
an out-of-tune band tootling that
Democratic standby, “Happy Days
Are Here Again.”
Then he talked to a family audi
ence about his family.
“My wife and I have been married
30 years, 30 years in July,” he said.
“We have three sons. My first son
was born in Virginia 28 years ago.
My second son was born 25 years ago
in Hawaii; my third son was born 23
years ago in Connecticut. And then
my wife and I had an argument for 14
years and I finally won-and we have
an 8-year-old daughteriin Georgia. ”
The crowd laifghed and
applauded. Jimmy Carter had won
another audience.
It happens day after day in state
after state. For it is clear from watch
ing Carter’s campaign for the De
mocratic presidential nomination
that much of his early success stems
from the definitive political ability to
size up an audience quickly and seize
on its pet interests.
Carter’s basic campaign promise is
simple: “I’ll never tell a lie.” Try as
they may, his opponents have been
unable to catch him in one.
What Carter does instead is subtly
change the emphasis in the same
message from audience to audience,
changing how he says it and what
part of the message he chooses to
emphasize.
One of his opponents. Rep. Mor
ris K. Udall, told an audience recent
ly: “In Boston, he got a good part of
the antibusing vote and a smile away
in Roxbury he was getting a lot of the
black vote. That’s a good day’s work
if you can do it.”
An example of the way he works
came recently before two different
audiences in White Plains and
Peekskill, N.Y.
Jimmy Carter
In White Plains, it was a suburban
crowd, sprinkled with blacks. It was
well-dressed, young, and middle
class in an area where Democrats are
basically liberal.
An hour later, in Peekskill, he
spoke to workers, foremen, and
small-business men and their
families. Many were dressed in work
clothes and several said they had
voted in the past for George C. Wal
lace and were sympathetic to Ronald
Reagan’s challenge to President
Ford.
In both places. Carter discussed
welfare, and in both his basic posi
tion was the same: that welfare reci
pients who can work should be
trained, taught to lead, and offered
jobs; that the federal and state gov
ernments should take the welfare
burden off local agencies with a un
iform nationwide payment to take
care of their basic needs; that welfare
workers should stop “shuffling
paper” and “ought to spend their
time dealing with the blind or the
disabled or alleviating hunger or
training people.”
In White Plains, he finished his
talk like this:
“But the other 90 per cent who
can’t work full time, we ought to
treat them with respect, decency
and concern and love . . . There
ought to be a work incentive aspect
built in. So that if a mother, for in
stance, has two little children and
she can leave those kids with a
grandmother for 15 hours a week —
her husband’s dead — she ought to
be encouraged to take a part-time
job and not have her welfare pay
ments suffer for it.”
In Peekskill, it ended this way:
“We’ve got to take the welfare re
sponsibilities off of local govern
ment; off of the property taxpayer. I
hope that in the future we never
have another property tax dollar go
for federal welfare costs. That ought
to come out of the state and federal
treasuries.”
He did not use the White Plains
line in Peekskill and vice versa.
Carter does not go into specifics
about his welfare revision plans,
which involve having states pick up
some of the cost. Nor does he say
how much it would cost and how
much it might diminish local prop
erty taxes. He responds to questions
about it by saying he believes much
of it could be financed by shifting
costs and through his government
reorganization plan.
Like most candidates running for
any office. Carter has a standard
speech and variations of that stan
dard speech. Which parts of it he
uses depends on the audience, the
location and their questions.
To Jewish voters, he talks about
the Mideast and his “personal
friendships ’ with Golda Meir, Yit
zhak Rabin and other Israeli leaders.
At the Rockland County Social Ser
vices Agency headquarters in
Pomona, N.Y., he talked about his
health care program; in depressed
Buffalo, he talked about his program
for creating jobs; in Peekskill he got
applause by mentioning he was the
only one of 60 fellow naval officers to
vote in 1948 for Harry S. Truman
and played a variation on his “I’ll
never lie to you” theme by adding
“And I believe Harry Truman never
lied either.”
There are parts of his standard
speech that are used some places and
not in others. In general, the less
educated the audience, the folksier
he gets.
In Peekskill, on the character of
the American people — “a tremend
ous untapped reservoir of good
Canada offers Bicentennial book
Associated Press
OTTAWA, Canada — Canada has
a picture book that cost $1.1 million
to produce and wants to give it to the
United States as a Bicentennial
birthday present this year.
But officials here say they are hav
ing difficulties pinning down Presi
dent Ford long enough in an election
year to present the gift to him.
It’s not that the President doesn’t
want the book, the officials say, it’s
that he’s attempting to take part in
“1,001 Bicentennial events he prob
ably considers more politically use-
fid than one involving Canada.”
The book is a 263-page photo
graphic record of scenes along the
Canada-U.S. border called “Bet
ween Friends — Entre Amis. ” It was
put together by the National Film
Board during the last two years, and
those who have seen it praise it.
It contains 220 color photographs
selected from 60,000 taken by 32
photographers during the last two
summers.
Officials say they hope Prime
Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau will
be able to present it to Ford before
the end of May.
All pictures in the book were
taken within 20 miles of each side of
the U.S.-Canadian border. They
were assembled under the direction
of Lorraine Monk, executive pro
ducer of the film board’s still photo
graphy division.
Publishers are McClelland and
Stewart of Toronto, who plan an ini
tial printing of 110,000 copies,
90,000 of which will be sold for
$29.50 each.
The remaining 20,000 first-run
copies will be given to politicians,
libraries, universities and such
people as governors of states along
the border.
About two-thirds of the free books
will be given away in the United
States. The other third will go to
Canadians.
The book is 10% by 14 inches and
is designed to fit “in the palm of the
hand and the crook of the elbow.
Che Battalion
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Editor Jerry Needham
Managing Editor Richard Chamberlain
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sense, sound judgment, intelli
gence, ability, vision, a commitment
to the work ethic, patriotism, religi
ous faith.”
To New York City blacks and again
in Peekskill: “I was the first person
in my daddy’s family to go past high
school. ’’
In his early primary successes.
Carter has gotten votes from interest
groups normally in conflict: blacks
and people opposed to busing;
Chicago organization politicians and
reform liberals who regularly oppose
them; blue collar and white collar.
It’s the same way as he campaigns.
In New York City, a talk to a room
ful of black leaders “65 per cent of my
neighbors in Plains are black and we
get along fine” elicited a constant
background murmuring of “right
on!!” and “tell it like it is.” He got
sustained applause in Peekskill,
where there were Wallace and
Reagan sympathizers in the audi
ence.
At Union College in Schenectady,
N.Y., where Carter did graduate
work in physics 25 years ago, the
chapel was filled and there were
about 300 people outside who
couldn’t get in. Local Carter workers
said several local schools had been
let out early so that the students
could come, but nonetheless, the
impression was that the former
Georgia governor’s reception was
overwhelmingly favorable.
Again, he played to the crowd,
emphasizing his complaints about
what he called the “boss-dominated”
New York primary system: “As an
engineer and a scientist, I have not
yet figured out the electoral process
in New York State.”
There is one Carter constant, usu
ally as he is about to leave.
“I love my country, ” he says. “But
it’s just as much your country as it is
mine and if you think something is
wrong with it, do something about it.
If you think I’m right, vote for me. If
you think my opponent is right, vote
for him. But our country should be a
source of pride and inspiration in-
RON G0DBEY
WILL BE ON CAMPUS
April 15, 1976
7:30 P.M.
Room 137 MSC
FULL-TIME REPRESENTATION
For Congress
Paid for by Elect Ron Godbey to Congress Campaign Com
mittee, 5733 Wharton, Ft. Worth, Texas. Bob Taft, Chair
man. Gary Wiley, Treasurer. A copy of our report is filed
with the Federal Election Commission and is available for
purchase from the Federal Election Commission, Washing
ton, D.C.
[MODt^EE^D
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stead of shame and apology and em
barrassment.
It rarely fails to provide a buoyant
exit.
For Battalion Classj
Call 845-2
ELECT
SCOTT GREGSO
VICE PRESIDENT OF FINANCE
Student Government
Let’s reduce the increasing costs of educalio
Laundry Costs-With the increasing costs of laundry sr
and the poor service given, the Student Business Count
establish a committee to investigate the feasibility of a.
versity Laundry Mat.
Parking and Ticket Costs-There is a large surplus -
fund that these revenues are placed into. There is a po:
ity for reduction of both of these through positive action
Student Business Council.
Shuttle Bus System-Increase the service given bytheSl
tie System and work on increasing the efficiency thr:j
Student Government Action.
Student Service Fees-These allocations need tci
watched and give the students the best return on then
vestment.
COMMUNICATION-Through The Battalion, a meat
communication between the administration and the stud!
can be established to give the students a better chai
evaluate the fees that they pay.
LOWER THE COSTS OF EDUCAUi
Vote SCOTT GREGSON
VICE PRESIDENT OF FINANCE
Pol. Ad Pd. For bv
enjoy a day of music
at the ocean . . .
SAN LUIS PASS
BEACH SPLASH
easier weekend Saturday • aprill
featuring
elvin bishop
maria muldaur
jerry jeff walker
hot tuna
freddie king
ray wylie hubbard
dr. hook
amazing rhythm aces
alvin crow & boz scaggs
advance tickets only $10.
festival site • west end galveston ish
Tickets Available At: The Shirt Shop
Gentlemen’s Quarter,
Any Member of Sigma Phi Epsilon or E(J) Epsilon
Fiat House
Top of the Tower
Texas A&M Universiv___
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