To Sail Against the Wind

Kennedy charts a new course to revive his campaign

Surrounded by five aides, a dozen Secret Service men and two dozen reporters, Ted Kennedy stepped off a Delta airliner at Boston's Logan Airport last week and waved to a cheering crowd. While a high school band struck up the Beatles' song With a Little Help from My Friends, Kennedy grinned and shouted, "We're going up to Maine and then to New Hampshire and all the way through to California. Then we'll see who is going to whip whose what." Equally boisterous at his downtown headquarters, he told supporters that he had challenged Carter to debate him when the two appear before the Consumer Federation of America in Washington on Feb. 7. Asked Kennedy, to a roar of approval: "Don't you think it's about time Carter came out of that rose garden?"

Kennedy no longer looked grim or dejected, as he did after his loss in Iowa, nor was he talking about withdrawing from the race if he loses in New England. After Iowa, he said that he had to beat Carter in Maine and New Hampshire to stay in the race, but now he claimed to be ready to go all no the contests.

If the Kennedy campaign was far from rolling, it appeared for the moment to be back on some kind of track. Essentially, Kennedy was now trying to appeal more to his natural constituency: the liberal-left wing of the Democratic Party, which had been sorely disappointed by his performance to date. He also took an aggressive stance in support of Israel when he appeared at the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations in New York City last week. "We must never barter the freedom and future of Israel for a barrel of oil," said Kennedy, "or foolishly try to align the Arab world with us, no matter what cost." Declared a satisfied participant: "He said everything they wanted to hear."

Kennedy's new course was set in his biggest speech of the campaign, delivered at Georgetown University in Washington last Monday. Beforehand, his aides had argued heatedly how far he should go in stating his views. Finally, Kennedy had pounded his desk and ended the dispute: "Don't tell me what I can't say. If I'm going down, I'm going to go down fighting for the things I believe in." Later he added: "When my grandchildren ask me 20 years from now why I ran for President in 1980, I'll be able to tell them."

The Georgetown speech was cleverly crafted, occasionally eloquent, often contradictory and at points quite weak. Kennedy rightfully blamed Carter for seeming to want to fight in the Persian Gulf rather than take the necessary strong domestic actions that would curb the nation's dependence on foreign oil. He pointed out that nothing was done--or said--about Afghanistan until the Soviets actually invaded. He said it was Carter's appearance of weakness that encouraged Soviet aggression. Yet at the same time as he chided the President for his proposals to strengthen the U.S., Kennedy approvingly quoted Theodore Roosevelt: "Don't flourish your revolver and never draw unless you intend to shoot." Carter had made a "false draw" with his demands for withdrawal of the Soviet brigade in Cuba and then changed his mind, said Kennedy, and that move "may have invited the invasion of Afghanistan."

But Kennedy went on to caution against exaggerating the importance of the crisis, and what he later called "war hysteria." Said he: "This is not the first abuse of Soviet power, nor will it be the last ... It is less than a year since the Vienna summit when President Carter kissed President Brezhnev on the cheek. We cannot afford a foreign policy based on the pangs of unrequited love." Kennedy cautioned against taking action in the Persian Gulf without the support of our allies. He warned against haste in adding new nuclear weaponry like the MX missile to the U.S. arsenal. He opposed registration for a peacetime draft. He criticized Carter for allowing the Shah of Iran into the U.S., and he called for a U.N. commission tc investigate Iranian grievances once the hostages are returned.

Domestically, he faulted the President for "our petroleum paralysis.' He urged gasoline rationing to reduce America's dangerous dependence or Middle East oil. Said he: "I am sure that every American would prefer to sacrifice a little gasoline rather than shed American blood to defend OPEC pipelines in the Middle East." To combat inflation, he asked for an immediate freeze on wages, prices, profits, dividends, interest rates and rents. Repeating a metaphor he had used with effect in a speech to the Democratic mid-term convention in Memphis in 1978, he concluded: "Sometimes a party must sail against the wind. Now is such a time."

The speech was a calculated risk-in a campaign that had reached a desperate stage and at times showed it. Though it would fire up Kennedy partisans, it would surely cool off many other people. Surveys indicate that many Americans are so exasperated with inflation that they would accept gas rationing, at least under certain circumstances, as well as wage and price controls, which traditionally do not work. But both policies would require the creation of unwieldy and expensive bureaucracies in which Government decrees would replace the efficiencies of the market. Gas consumption could more easily be reduced by allowing the price to rise; a tax could then be imposed to return money to lower-income groups. Surveys also show that the majority of people want to fight inflation by cutting Government spending.

Kennedy's speech was received coolly by Carter, who ordered his staffers to control their emotions and hold their tongues. But they were barely able to contain their anger and sarcasm. "The speech will win back the liberal activists but hurt him in the general election," said a staffer. Campaign Director Robert Strauss commented: "I'm rather speechless about the speech. It didn't excite me, and I suspect the American public feels the same."

Kennedy backers hope that the speech will rekindle fervor for their candidate. Enthusiasm, in fact, is now financing much of the campaign, since contributions declined dramatically after the Iowa defeat and have only gradually started to come in again. Kennedy had to abandon his lavish 727 jet for a modest twin-engine plane, and reporters must now follow him around New Hampshire and Maine in small planes of their own.

Most of the available funds--around $325,000--will be spent on TV and radio advertising in New England. Some of the ads will try to deal with Chappaquiddick. After his Monday speech, Kennedy appeared on New England television to express fervently his sorrow over the death of Mary Jo Kopechne. Said he: "I know there are people who will never believe me, no matter what I say. I do ask you to judge me by the basic American standard of fairness, not on the basis of gossip and speculation."

Other ads will unveil the reborn campaigner. Explains Film Maker Charles Guggenheim, who is supervising the ads: "It is no secret that Senator Kennedy is taking his gloves off. Our ads will reflect that." Whether the barefisted style will keep him in the presidential ring remains to be tested, but it is now at least clear how he intends to fight.

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