Read ’em and weep is the only possible White House reaction to the latest cascade of polls. Gallup: Ford beats Carter 50 to 43. ABC News/Harris: Reagan beats Carter 51 to 43, Baker beats Carter 46 to 45. (Connally runs 11 points behind the President.) . . . ABC News/ Harris: 73 per cent of Americans give Carter a negative rating; Nixon’s lowest rating was 71 per cent negative. . … Harris: Only 38 per cent of Americans now call themselves Democrats; that figure was 51 per cent when Carter took office. (The Republican National Committee can read this one and weep too. While Democratic allegiance plunged. Republican allegiance didn’t inchup a single point; it remains at 24 per cent. Independent ranks swelled.) … A thoughtful Washington Post analysis of Kennedy popularity figures indicates they may be inflated out of proportion. The Post points out that many who say they favor Kennedy over Carter “don’t seem to be aware of how liberal Senator Kennedy is on most issues.” . . . Alan Baron reports that when delegates to a meeting of the Association of Political Consultants— professional campaign managers—were polled recently in Baltimore, two-thirds (48 out of 72) thought Carter would be renominated. (Kennedy 21, Brown two, Moynihan one.)
Sen. Howard Baker was relatively polite about it, but firm. “My reply [to Andrei Gromyko’s threats to the U.S. Senate on SALT] is that the Senate will work its will and the American Republic will survive and prosper without that advice from Russia.” Baker says the treaty is unacceptable as now written. . . . Barry Goldwater was more forceful. “I don’t give a goddamn what any Russian says about the U.S. Senate.” His advice to Byrd on his trip to Moscow was “to tell Gromyko to go to hell.” . . . Pravda didn’t exactly help smooth ruffled feathers when it asked editorially: “When the senator [Baker] puts an ultimatum to a sovereign state, is this a serious, responsible approach? . . . After all, there is such a thing as a sense of proportion.” . . . Back home, Evans & Novak say it ain’t so that Jimmy Carter has the total support of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on SALT II.
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