For the Record

Last July, when polls had his man ahead by 30 points, Carter campaign manager Hamilton Jordan issued a warning to his cocky troops: the race will probably be neck and neck by November. Jordan was off by a month. Yankelovich, for Time, says it’s already a dead heat. Carter’s solid South is beginning to move: Ford is in the lead in Virginia and is within striking distance in Florida, South Carolina, and Texas . . . Carter’s staff is outwardly unflapped, but other Democrats are worried. “It’s not that [Carter’s] a Southerner,” said one Northern Democrat. “It’s him; and he’s a strange guy, and people seem to sense it too.” Washington Post reports: “Even now, as Carter crisscrosses the country, the old-time Democratic politicians greet him more often than not like a naturalized Martian rather than a fellow soldier.” . . . Chairman Robert Strauss says party is $2 million shy of the $3.2 million promised Carter-Mondale and some splashy ads will have to be dropped . . . Labor expects a low turnout in November and is working to assure a high labor turnout for Carter. George Meany has written 5,600 AFL-CIO bosses telling them to disregard Playboy interview and concentrate on registering workers. In retaliation for Ford’s trimming of federal employees’ pay raise, Kenneth T. Blaylock, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, is urging his workers to take leave from their jobs to participate in voter-registration drives. Blaylock has named October “Work for Democracy Month.”

From Business Week, October 11: “Names are beginning to surface for Cabinet posts in next administration. At Agriculture, incumbent Earl Butz is a cinch to stay on if Ford wins.” . . . Lester Maddox, on the gross and other recent indiscretions: “This may sound cruel, but what somebody ought to do is tie up Carter’s tongue and amputate Rockefeller’s finger—and the President should have fired Butz. These men are the same as Richard Nixon—only worse. At least, Mr. Nixon did it in the privacy of his office.” . . . Pre-Butz, the Administration’s unheralded black strategy was moving well. Muhammed Ali was leaning to Ford. Three days before his fight with Ken Norton he told Congressional Black Caucus: “I may have to vote for Ford.” Ford, Ali said, “invited me to the White House three times—and you folks have never invited me to the White House once.” Donato, Toronto Sun Rothco

Featured Tags

Manage following

Jimmy Carter

Gerald R. Ford

Presidential Election

William F. Buckley Jr.

Last July, when polls had his man ahead by 30 points, Carter campaign manager Hamilton Jordan issued a warning to his cocky troops: the race will probably be neck and neck by November. Jordan was off by a month. Yankelovich, for Time, says it’s already a dead heat. Carter’s solid South is beginning to move: Ford is in the lead in Virginia and is within striking distance in Florida, South Carolina, and Texas . . . Carter’s staff is outwardly unflapped, but other Democrats are worried. “It’s not that [Carter’s] a Southerner,” said one Northern Democrat. “It’s him; and he’s a strange guy, and people seem to sense it too.” Washington Post reports: “Even now, as Carter crisscrosses the country, the old-time Democratic politicians greet him more often than not like a naturalized Martian rather than a fellow soldier.” . . . Chairman Robert Strauss says party is $2 million shy of the $3.2 million promised Carter-Mondale and some splashy ads will have to be dropped . . . Labor expects a low turnout in November and is working to assure a high labor turnout for Carter. George Meany has written 5,600 AFL-CIO bosses telling them to disregard Playboy interview and concentrate on registering workers. In retaliation for Ford’s trimming of federal employees’ pay raise, Kenneth T. Blaylock, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, is urging his workers to take leave from their jobs to participate in voter-registration drives. Blaylock has named October “Work for Democracy Month.”

From Business Week, October 11: “Names are beginning to surface for Cabinet posts in next administration. At Agriculture, incumbent Earl Butz is a cinch to stay on if Ford wins.” . . . Lester Maddox, on the gross and other recent indiscretions: “This may sound cruel, but what somebody ought to do is tie up Carter’s tongue and amputate Rockefeller’s finger—and the President should have fired Butz. These men are the same as Richard Nixon—only worse. At least, Mr. Nixon did it in the privacy of his office.” . . . Pre-Butz, the Administration’s unheralded black strategy was moving well. Muhammed Ali was leaning to Ford. Three days before his fight with Ken Norton he told Congressional Black Caucus: “I may have to vote for Ford.” Ford, Ali said, “invited me to the White House three times—and you folks have never invited me to the White House once.” Donato, Toronto Sun Rothco