Carter's Road Show

Though the suspense-filled Republican struggle has temporarily forced Jimmy Carter out of the spotlight, the Democratic presidential nominee is in no danger of reverting to the "Jimmy who?" of pre-primary days. He is, in fact, continuing to exude--and to convey--such an aura of confidence that editors of the Scribner-Bantam English Dictionary have thrown caution to the winds. For a new edition to appear next January, they drafted an entry reading: "Carter, James /kart'ar/ n (1924-) 39th president of the U.S. 1977-." Although the listing can be deleted if Carter should lose the election on Nov. 2, Carter has no intention of putting the editors to that trouble.

While the G.O.P. was preparing for its Kansas City showdown, Carter's campaign had all the characteristics of a new play being tried out on the road before its Broadway opening. The reviews were generally good but not overwhelming. In swings to Manchester, N.H., Washington, B.C., Atlanta, and Charleston, W. Va., the nominee shored up his liberal credentials (actually, he prefers to call them populist), attacked the Republicans as corrupt, incompetent and insensitive, and referred to the "Nixon-Ford Administration." He evoked applause from an American Bar Association audience when he vowed "to take a new broom to Washington and do everything possible to sweep the house of Government clean."

Wooing Nader. Carter's road show was boffo with Consumer Advocate Ralph Nader, who proclaimed Carter "a breath of fresh air." During a visit with Carter in Plains, Ga., the generally aloof Nader even allowed himself to be roped into umpiring a Softball game--the only one Pitcher Carter has lost in eight outings. (Joking about Nader's performance as an umpire, Carter later quipped: "Both sides said he was lousy--and I can't disagree with that.") Two days after the Plains visit, Nader introduced Carter at a Public Citizen forum in Washington, at which the nominee endorsed many of the ideas Nader has pushed for a decade: stronger antitrust enforcement, an end to the "sweetheart" arrangement whereby many federal appointees come to Government agencies from the very industries they are supposed to regulate, tax reform, and the need for a consumer protection agency.

Another friendly pilgrim to Plains, California Governor Jerry Brown, told reporters that the man he had beaten in several primaries can not only carry California but "can carry any state in the nation." Do Carter and Brown like each other? Observed Brown: "Well, I don't know ... I try to work with everybody, and as far as I know, I think Carter is a good person. I like him and want to do all I can."

There were a couple of sour notes.

Interpreting a poll by Patrick Caddell as rating John Connally low on integrity, Carter in an interview needlessly added that only Alabama Governor George Wallace ranked lower. The remark recalled similarly gratuitous comments that Carter had made during the primaries about Hubert Humphrey and Ted Kennedy, and a number of the Georgian's Southern supporters let him know that they were unhappy about it. Carter lost no time in telephoning Wallace in Montgomery, Ala., to apologize.

Carter also spoke scornfully of a practice pursued by Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford (and quite a few other Presidents, though Carter neglected to say so): appointing "unsuccessful candidates" to cushy Government posts. One of the appointees specifically included in a staff-produced paper backing up the generalized claim was CIA Director George Bush, who went from a losing Texas senatorial campaign to become U.N. ambassador, then Republican National Committee chairman, then U.S. liaison chief in Peking, and now holds the nation's top intelligence job. Shortly after the speech, Bush came to Plains for a six-hour briefing of Carter on national security matters. Carter later told reporters that the use of Bush's name was the result of a staffer's mistake, and he publicly apologized to the CIA director. At the same time, however, he criticized another Republican appointee, FBI Director Clarence Kelley, for losing control of the bureau and strongly hinted that he would go if Carter becomes President.

Still, compared with the raucous Republicans, Carter was making good progress preparing for the campaign. His national campaign staff--now consisting of 325 paid workers but scheduled to grow to 700 or 800 by the fall--has moved into new headquarters: three upper floors of the 24-story Colony Square building on Atlanta's Peachtree Street.

One indication of Carter's strength emerged not from his own camp but from the embattled White House. Should Ford win the nomination, the President's strategists said, he might challenge Carter to a series of debates. That would be a switch. It has usually been the challenger who has tried--generally without success--to persuade the incumbent to debate. But then, not many challengers have enjoyed a 2-to-l margin over the incumbent in the early polls.

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