The Democrats "Jesse Has No Equals"

By Stanley W. Cloud, Jimmy Carter

After Jesse Jackson's speech, former President Jimmy Carter spoke with TIME's Stanley W. Cloud. Excerpts:

This is the first time that we've seen a potential showdown between a black leader and a white leader in the primary season. But I don't think there has ever been any division where attitudes toward racial questions are concerned. I think Dukakis is just as sensitive to them as I was, or other Democrats in the past were . . . When Jesse Jackson asked me to intercede, I didn't think it was appropriate for me to act in any sort of public role, because that insinuates that Dukakis is actually incapable of resolving differences. But I talked to Bentsen after that, and I talked to Dukakis representatives.

There have been many people in the country who have not accepted until now the proposition that blacks have a legitimate role within the councils of government. I think what Jesse has done in his extraordinary campaign is to let moderate and even many conservative Democrats see that the issues that are important to Jesse's narrowly defined constituency also apply to them. To me, this may be not the final but at least the penultimate peak in the acceptance of blacks within the American political system . . . Jackson's speech last night was the best ever given at a convention, certainly in my lifetime. I don't think he's equaled anywhere as an orator.