THE FORD-CARTER CHARACTER TEST

The meanings people find in the ink patterns of a Rorschach test reveal their personality. Americans have been intently studying, as they would Rorschach patterns, the images of Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter--not to find out about themselves, but about the candidates. The first TV debate failed to bring that one lightning revelation of character that many had hoped for. Thus there is no substitute for studying the candidates through careful reporting and psychological surmise.

The two contenders share many traits. Both are men of integrity and decency. The cornerstone of Ford's campaign is his claim to have restored trust to the White House. Among the Democratic candidates who competed in the primaries, Carter was the first to perceive that trust would probably be the major issue in the campaign. Each is offering his record of probity as an index to his trustworthiness. Both are devoted family men and each has a deep religious faith. Carter is a born-again evangelical; Ford is an Episcopalian who participates in weekly White House prayer meetings. Says Georgetown University's Political Scientist Jeane Kirkpatrick: "They come from modest origins, having achieved personal success with hard work. Neither has the style of an urban sophisticate like a Kennedy or Roosevelt. Both have high levels of self-control."

Carter was never a star athlete, but he shares the competitive instincts that Ford honed on the gridiron at the University of Michigan. In less positive ways, too, there are similarities. Both candidates can also be quite stubborn when they have decided on a political course of action.

But there are major and obvious differences as well. Ford is affable and gregarious and enjoys nothing more than a bull session in the White House with old friends. Carter, although a good one-on-one campaigner who likes to meet people in public, has a deep sense of privacy and relaxes by taking solitary walks in the Georgia woods. Both are highly intelligent. But Carter is a quick study, introspective and contemplative; Ford assimilates information more slowly, but has an impressive grasp of complex and diverse subjects. Fred Greenstein, a political science professor at Princeton, believes that Carter is sometimes "almost too cool in his capacity to turn the other cheek," but he displays flashes of anger ("when he's hot, he's very hot"), which Greenstein contrasts with Ford's equanimity.

As only five weeks remain before the election, and the "personality issue" seems more crucial than ever, TIME here presents assessments of the candidates by two correspondents who have regularly covered them. Dean Fischer reports on Ford, Stanley Cloud on Carter.

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