From Sea to Shining Sea

Carter barnstorms the nation to boost his campaign

"Carter!" they chanted "Carter! Carter! Carter!" For a moment at least, the President last week heard Americans cheer themselves hoarse, a heady sensation he had not enjoyed in many months. Knowing all too well how desperately he needed a lift, Jimmy Carter had chosen his audience well: the convention in Los Angeles of the National Education Association. The organization has been enthusiastically behind him ever since he supported higher aid to education and fought successfully for the establishment of a separate Department of Education.

Carter's ego-boosting appearance before the N.E.A. was the highlight of a frantic week of sputtering presidential fireworks, or possibly distress signals, as he tried to generate momentum for his campaign. Though he had just returned from a moderately upbeat trip to Europe, Carter took off on another 15-day marathon that would wing him twice across the U.S., then to Japan, then to a stopover in Alaska on the way back and finally to a few days of rest at Sapelo Island off the coast of Georgia, where he would watch the Republican Convention on TV.

In the friendly confines of the N.E.A. convention, Carter launched his most serious and bitter attack yet on the policies of Ronald Reagan, the all-but-crowned nominee of the G.O.P. The President denounced the Kemp-Roth tax cut, which Reagan supports, as "sheer deception . . . the kind of hasty offer that can only be called by one word, and that is 'irresponsible.' " Concluded Carter: "It is a classic offer in a political year of a free lunch, something for nothing. The American people know there is nothing for nothing any longer."

During his two days in California, Carter also talked politics with Governor Jerry Brown, who still would not publicly endorse him. Doffing his jacket, Carter traded repartee with an audience in the farm community of Merced. When a farmer complained about immigrants' not wanting to work, Carter cracked, without further explanation, "There are loafers even in my family." He seemed to raise hope about the hostages in Iran by mentioning still another "avenue to Iranian leaders." But then he admitted, "I do not know what else we can do without endangering the lives of the hostages."

On the evening of July 4, the President flew to Miami Beach to address the N.A.A.C.P. convention. The black vote was basic to his victory four years ago, and he needs it even more urgently this year. The problem is 'not that blacks will desert to Carter's rivals. Reagan's conservative positions turn them off, and John Anderson remains an unknown, although he displayed engaging candor when he told the N.A.A.C.P. convention: "I cannot pretend to know what it is day in and day out to be black in America." The threat to Carter is that blacks may be so disappointed with his performance that they may not vote in large enough numbers to help him take key states that he captured in 1976.

But when Carter spoke to the N.A.A.C.P. he gave a lackluster performance that failed to draw much support. After praising himself as the President who has "appointed more black judges than any in U.S. history," Carter warned that a change might occur if he were replaced by a Republican. "The U.S. Supreme Court has been the final bulwark of freedom. You just think about what will happen with another three or four appointments."

Earlier, the President had hoped to stage a super July 4 celebration for the enactment of the final two-thirds of his energy program. But last month the House turned down Carter's bill to establish an Energy Mobilization Board, and Carter had to settle for a more modest accomplishment: giving final approval to the $20 billion program for developing synthetic fuels. For another signing, the President invited Ted Kennedy to join him on the platform in the Rose Garden. The occasion: putting into law the trucking deregulation bill. Said the President with a smile: "It's particularly gratifying to welcome Senator Kennedy because he's done such a tremendous job, too." Quipped the Senator, alluding to Carter's refusal to debate: "There is no debate on trucking deregulation."

The next day, Carter took just five minutes to put his signature on a draft registration proclamation that could hurt him at the polls. Some 4 million youths will have to sign up this month. Although the President has no plans to draft them, he declared that the step had to be taken as a means of convincing the Soviet Union that its invasion of Afghanistan was "illadvised and to prevent further aggression."

Carter even managed to sandwich in foreign affairs. He brought Israeli and Egyptian negotiators together for talks on Palestinian autonomy. The President's announcement that he would go to Japan this week for the memorial service for the late Prime Minister Masayoshi Ohira came as a surprise, especially since Carter had chosen not to attend Tito's funeral. But Carter wanted to demonstrate his concern for Asia and perhaps meet for the first time with Chinese Premier Hua Guofeng, who will also be in Japan for the service.

As Carter whizzed about the country, his opponents were also active. Showing no sign of yielding, Kennedy delegates were planning to challenge the platform at the Democratic Convention as well as the binding of delegates to the candidate chosen in the primaries or caucuses. The diehards hope to persuade delegates to abandon the President and switch to Kennedy. In an election in which the polls show him running several points behind Reagan, Carter faces the growing and unpleasant prospect of being attacked during prime time at his own convention.

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