Nothing Wrong with Normalcy

By Hugh Sidey

One day seven months ago, as Henry Kissinger was savoring a final meal in the State Department's elegant dining room, the historian turned statesman suggested that Jimmy Carter might have the first normal years in the White House since John Kennedy.

The world has calmed perceptibly, Kissinger noted, and was presided over by men and women who, in most cases, seemed more interested in upgrading their societies than in waging war or swaggering around the globe. At home, the former professor felt, after 13 years of assassination, social upheaval and scandal, a more mature and understanding people now wanted time to examine their values and sort out their individual lives.

Henry had something. Carter faces some serious problems, no doubt. Yet he has drifted almost without realizing it into August and what well might pass for "normalcy." Around the White House they believe that getting back to normal is a lot of what Jimmy Carter is about. And they have even been practicing a little of what they have been preaching.

Joe Califano, the workaholic Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, actually went to Cape Cod for a rest. Vice President Fritz Mondale went fishing in Canada. Jody Powell stayed home a couple of days.

Zbigniew Brzezinski, the President's foreign policy expert, is fully schooled in the tradition of predecessors like McGeorge Bundy, Walt Rostow and Kissinger. Crisis was a way of life. Their families were stangers. They set up cots next to their desks so that they could be within steps of the hot-line messages that dropped into the Situation Room. Not only did Brzezinski defy tradition by going off to Maine's Mount Desert Island for a week, but when his boss was at Camp David, he played tennis on the White House court in the middle of the afternoon. Returning to his office, he sat down at his desk in his tennis gear. He buzzed for the White House photographer. When the cameraman arrived, Brzezinski shouldered his tennis racquet and asked that a portrait be made of this extraordinary moment in the life of a presidential aide.

When Zbigniew went to Camp David to confer with Carter, the President and Rosalynn were riding bicycles in the sunshine. The consultations on the mountaintop were so productive that Brzezinski vowed to recommend that the White House set up summer operation at Camp David from June to September for at least three or four days of each week.

Carter Pollster Pat Caddell believes that the first phase of Carter's presidency has largely been achieved. Carter's appeal is established, the country is calm and believing again, some good legislation is on the books and a few new ideas are being debated.

Caddell argues that Carter must now move into Phase 2. The President needs to spell out more clearly the vision he has for America, says the pollster, to show that he can actually improve the lives of the people. Caddell no doubt will soon have a memo on all this for the President to study. But right now there are beaches to walk and boats to mess with and boiled lobsters to savor. . .

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.