The Joyous Risk of Unity

The water off Sea Island, Ga., was so rough that the crew of a Coast Guard launch got seasick, but an ornery ocean was not going to spoil Jimmy Carter's vacation. He came back from a day at sea with his digestive system intact, a bonito of respectable size and the usual fisherman's lament: "You should have seen the one that got away. It was one of the largest cobias I've ever seen."

Little else was escaping Carter's net or eye last week. Frank Church and Henry Jackson endorsed Carter. Though Morris Udall remained a candidate -officially, not actively -he told his delegates they may do as they wish. That left only Jerry Brown, with his strange and seemingly doomed guerrilla action. He continued to court delegates, and plans a half-hour network television appearance this week.

Carter found time to visit Democratic delegates and contributors in New York and Texas, review convention plans, schedule fund raisers to pay off his $1.2 million campaign deficit, and consider procedures for selecting a running mate. One decision: to form a panel of "distinguished Americans" to give advice, if not consent, on a candidate for Vice President.

Immense Virtue. A problem Carter can forget about is the party platform. The document agreed upon by the 153-member drafting committee was a monument to sweet unity. At 15,000 words it was half the size of the 1972 model. Missing were provocative stands on homosexuals' rights, abortion, school busing and legalization of pot that helped undermine George McGovern four years ago. The surviving planks were carefully planed, with the consent of all the factions represented, to fit Carter's design. The finished product is undramatic, but has the virtue of being offensive to few and acceptable to many.

The item on abortion, for instance, said only that there should be no constitutional amendment to overrule the Supreme Court's moderately permissive decision. That goes along with Carter's previous stand. During the primary campaign, candidates to the left of Carter had urged legislation now to break up large oil companies (see BUSINESS). Carter had stopped short of that. The platform noted the lack of a "free, competitive market for crude oil in the U.S." It supported new Government restrictions "when competition inadequate to insure free markets and maximum benefit to American consumers exists."

The most sensitive issue concerned Viet Nam draft evaders and deserters. Sam Brown, 32, once a prominent leader of the antiwar movement and now state treasurer of Colorado, argued for full pardons. After some amiable maneuvering between Brown and Atlanta Attorney Stuart Eizenstat, Carter's chief spokesman on the platform committee, another compromise emerged. A blanket pardon would be promised to draft dodgers, but treatment of those who actually deserted from military service would be considered "on a case-by-case basis." Said Brown: "I am not enthusiastic about this language, but it is the position of our candidate."

Democratic National Chairman Robert Strauss was more than enthusiastic. He thanked the platform writers for making a "dramatic and magnificent and positive impression." To reporters he cracked: "I'm trying to get a minority report on something, but I'm not having any luck." Strauss joked about the joyous risk that the unusual degree of harmony might become a wet blanket of ennui at Madison Square Garden: "I'm not bored a bit. I might just sit in the background and drink a little whisky." In fact, with the nomination virtually settled, Carter will have to use some imagination to hold public interest.

Press Secretary Jody Powell passed the word that Carter had sternly admonished his staff about being too cocky. This week Carter will confer with Democratic congressional leaders. Next week he will attend a meeting of mayors in Milwaukee, and the week after he will appear at the National Governors' Conference in Hershey, Pa. At these and other stops, he can be expected to soothe factions that opposed him.

During a colloquy with reporters last week, Carter observed that Lyndon Johnson had never been fully accepted by Eastern liberals. "Why," he was asked, "would you think you could be?" Replied Carter: "Because I'm sure of myself." Like the platform, that statement produced little argument.

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