For the Record

A new Jimmy Carter? Now that his nomination is all but sealed, Jimmy Carter is becoming “more presidential.” From now on “It will be more blue suits and less peanut farmer,” as one of his aides put it last week. . . . But that course may have its problems. Washington Post columnist David Broder warns the Carter camp against “Deweyitis,” a disease “whose symptoms are an unwillingness to say anything for fear of disturbing The Mandate. [Tom] Dewey was so bloody statesmanlike and patronizing,” says Broder, “that people got tired of him before election day and turned to scrappy, aggressive Harry Truman.” . . . Liberal New York Post columnist Max Lerner writes that he has detected a note of Gaullist grandiosity in the new Carter. . . . Former (and present) Carter political enemy Lester Maddox admits that Carter has probably got the Presidency wrapped up already, and adds, sweet and sourly: “He’s made history. It’s regrettable he’s not an honest man.”

As of his June 25 newsletter, Kevin Phillips was still rating Gerald Ford 2 to 1 over Ronald Reagan at Kansas City. . . . But New York Daily News political columnist James Wieghart feels that if it is very close in Kansas City it could tilt Reagan’s way because, he says, “most of the uncommitted delegates would seem to have already made a negative judgment on Ford’s electability.” . . . Ford’s decision not to get rid of Henry Kissinger is popular according to latest Harris poll which says Americans approve Kissinger’s retention by 52 to 24 per cent; they continue to approve Kissinger’s performance by 55 to 38 per cent. . . . Settling of old scores: Sen. Charles Mathias (R., Md.), who talked earlier this year of mounting an independent presidential race— Ford and Reagan are too far right for him—has been denied a seat on the Maryland delegation to Kansas City.

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Presidential Election

A new Jimmy Carter? Now that his nomination is all but sealed, Jimmy Carter is becoming “more presidential.” From now on “It will be more blue suits and less peanut farmer,” as one of his aides put it last week. . . . But that course may have its problems. Washington Post columnist David Broder warns the Carter camp against “Deweyitis,” a disease “whose symptoms are an unwillingness to say anything for fear of disturbing The Mandate. [Tom] Dewey was so bloody statesmanlike and patronizing,” says Broder, “that people got tired of him before election day and turned to scrappy, aggressive Harry Truman.” . . . Liberal New York Post columnist Max Lerner writes that he has detected a note of Gaullist grandiosity in the new Carter. . . . Former (and present) Carter political enemy Lester Maddox admits that Carter has probably got the Presidency wrapped up already, and adds, sweet and sourly: “He’s made history. It’s regrettable he’s not an honest man.”

As of his June 25 newsletter, Kevin Phillips was still rating Gerald Ford 2 to 1 over Ronald Reagan at Kansas City. . . . But New York Daily News political columnist James Wieghart feels that if it is very close in Kansas City it could tilt Reagan’s way because, he says, “most of the uncommitted delegates would seem to have already made a negative judgment on Ford’s electability.” . . . Ford’s decision not to get rid of Henry Kissinger is popular according to latest Harris poll which says Americans approve Kissinger’s retention by 52 to 24 per cent; they continue to approve Kissinger’s performance by 55 to 38 per cent. . . . Settling of old scores: Sen. Charles Mathias (R., Md.), who talked earlier this year of mounting an independent presidential race— Ford and Reagan are too far right for him—has been denied a seat on the Maryland delegation to Kansas City.