The Road Show Goes West

"You make me feel like I'm back in the campaign," Jimmy Carter laughingly told a woman in Los Angeles last week. And, in a sense, he was. Under increasing criticism--from liberals, who regard him as too much of a penny-pinching conservative, and from labor leaders, who complain that parts of his energy programs could put many blue-collar Americans out of work--Carter took to the hustings again by making a whirlwind, campaign-style tour of California. There he confronted some of his critics and demonstrated that even in a state that he lost by 127,500 votes last November, he has broad public support.

Carter's first stop was his most important: the United Auto Workers' annual convention, in Los Angeles, where he made a speech to 6,000 delegates, alternates and guests. The delegates had gathered to elect Douglas Fraser to succeed retiring President Leonard Woodcock, the Administration's choice as head of the U.S. liaison office in Peking (see ECONOMY & BUSINESS). Although most of the U.A.W.'s leaders were among Carter's strongest union supporters last year, many of them fear that he is abandoning his campaign promises of social reforms in favor of balancing the budget by 1981.

Only the day before, Senator Edward Kennedy had told the delegates that "health reform is in danger of becoming the missing promise in the Administration's plans."

Picking up Kennedy's gauntlet, Carter said that he was "committed to the phasing-in of a national health insurance system" and would send the legislation to Congress early next year. The delegates responded with a standing, 50-second ovation. They were less pleased when he declared that while successful programs would not be cut back, he had to "make some hard choices about how we spend the taxpayers' money." He added: "We can't afford to do everything." The delegates sat in silence as he vigorously defended his proposal to save fuel by imposing heavy taxes on gas-guzzling cars; the U.A.W. believes such a step would cost jobs. Said Carter: "The solution lies in using our great American ingenuity to design and produce the right cars for the future."

In an armored limousine, one of two Government gas guzzlers kept in California, Carter headed next to the studios of KNXT-TV for a locally televised reprise of his successful national call-in program. Sitting on an uncomfortably high stool, he fielded about 30 questions from a live studio audience of 200 and, via five TV cameras, from passers-by at suburban shopping centers, sidewalks and the U.C.L.A. campus. The toughest challenge came from Birdell Moore, a director of the Watts Health Foundation, who sought assurances that the Administration would appoint more blacks to top Government jobs. Said she: "We didn't play ticktacktoe with you in the election, and we do not expect you to play ticktacktoe with these jobs." Carter replied: "There are no jobs that will be offered for which black people will not be considered."

Soft or Silly. Most of the questions, however, were either soft or silly--including one on how he proposed to deal with graffiti (he offered no solution). Afterward he said he might schedule a nationally televised call-in show later this year. His reason: "A lot of the questions are things I can't do much about, like graffiti, but it gives me a good sense of what is of concern to the people."

Back aboard Air Force One, Carter flew to Fresno for a look at the San Joaquin Valley, which has been particularly hard-hit by the western drought (seefollowing story). As the plane dipped below the clouds so that he could see the diminished reservoirs in the bone-dry foothills of the Sierra Nevada, he asked Morris ("Red") Martin, a soil-conservation expert, "What can we do? We can't make it rain." Later, a coatless Carter walked through parched groves of almond, olive and peach trees on Charles Kryder's 220-acre farm, and looked at the neighboring ranch owned by Manuel Silva, who has had to sell 65% of his livestock because of the drought.

For Peanut Farmer Carter, the tour was a moving experience. Ignoring his split-second schedule, he lingered to talk with Martin, Kryder and Silva about irrigation systems, drought damage and the financial help they wanted from the Government. Carter gestured toward the normally fertile valley and promised farmers that he would speed the flow of $2.2 billion in drought relief.

As Air Force One winged toward Washington, one Californian was clearly relieved that Carter's visit had been so brief: Governor Jerry Brown. Though Carter described him as "one of my strongest and best supporters and friends," the Governor has hinted otherwise. When asked only days ago by a Washington lawyer if he was thinking of challenging Carter in the 1980 primaries, Brown snapped: "Why not? I beat him six out of six last time." But last week the Governor was upstaged at every turn, and he looked testy as he waved rather joylessly to the people who were rushing to see the President.

Bugs and Wiretaps. Back at the White House after his 5,000-mile, 19-hour tour, Carter caught less than six hours of sleep. Next morning he joined Attorney General Griffin Bell and 34 members of Congress in the Rose Garden to hail Kennedy's bill to tighten restrictions on electronic eavesdropping. The legislation would require the Government to get a warrant from a federal judge before using bugs or wiretaps in investigating foreign intelligence activities within the U.S.

Next day Carter moved to fulfill another campaign promise by announcing what sounded like stringent restrictions on American arms sales overseas. From now on, he said, such sales will be made only when they clearly contribute "to our national security interests." Carter added that the restrictions will not apply to allies, including the NATO countries and Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Israel.

The week ended with another friendly gesture toward an old political foe. At Carter's invitation, ex-President Gerald Ford, in Washington to address a Republican dinner, stopped by at the White House for a half-hour's private visit. In his speech at the G.O.P. fund raiser, Ford mildly criticized some Carter policies, but he praised others as coming close to Republican doctrines --a fact that may comfort Ford but hardly soothes liberal Democrats.

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