In the course of a long presidential election campaign a chosen few journalists enjoy the opportunity of watching candidates go through their dawn-to-dusk schedules from a claustrophobic range. Last week in Waco, Texas, TIME Photographer Arthur Grace was reminded that the candidates get a good chance to watch journalists too. As he posed for the accompanying picture with Jimmy Carter and Correspondent Christopher Ogden, Grace was surprised to hear the President call him his "secret adviser." Added Carter: "Whenever I speak, I look to you to see if you're going to give me the thumbs up or down."

For Ogden, the remark was further evidence of what he sees as a dramatic difference between Carter the President and Carter the campaigner.

Ogden has covered more than 80,000 miles in 27 states with the candidate since January. He observes: "The same fellow who can be very cool and distant in Washington takes on almost a new persona on the campaign trail. He can get very excited." A veteran of the Ford-Dole campaign in 1976, Ogden says that his stint with Carter has been "a great deal more intense. When he does campaign, Carter throws everything into it."

The pace has been as hectic on the Reagan side, where Correspondent Laurence Barrett says he has seen America as he had not for years: "Mostly it looks like the inside of a plane or a Holiday Inn room." Barrett covered 80,000 miles and 23 states before he stopped counting three months ago. He has seen two of his portable computer terminals, for filing stories back to New York, go up in smoke. But Barrett remains stoic. Says he: "Come Nov. 4,1 have a fifty-fifty chance of knowing the President-elect better than most people know their next-door neighbors."

Correspondent Eileen Shields has found that a lively sense of humor is essential to survive a presidential campaign. Shields, who has traveled 30,000 miles with Independent Candidate John Anderson since mid-August, describes the atmosphere on Anderson's press plane as "zanier all the time." She reports that her colleagues have taken to hanging a rubber chicken from the ceiling and blowing whistles during take-offs and landings. Still, admits Shields, "the only thing worse than covering a presidential campaign is not covering one."

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