Throwing High and Inside

By WALTER ISAACSON

Smudges on the horsehide as Carter plays hardball

"You take the high road and we'll take the low road," is the advice a presidential candidate usually gets from his top aides and running mate. But in his recent campaigning, President Carter has reversed that pattern, slashing with sharp hyperbole at Ronald Reagan while Jody Powell and other aides anxiously try to dampen his rhetorical excesses.

Carter started his attack earlier this month with insinuations that Reagan was opposed to world peace and in favor of an arms race that could lead to nuclear war. Last week he blitzed again. The blunt message: Reagan was a racist.

The Republican candidate had indeed opened himself to some retaliation on that score by noting pointedly on Labor Day that Carter was campaigning in Tuscumbia, Ala., "the city that gave birth to the Ku Klux Klan." Actually, Carter had denounced the Klan in his speech in Tuscumbia, which, anyway, was not the birthplace of the racist organization. Earlier, addressing a white audience in Mississippi, Reagan had spoken of "states' rights," a longtime code word for opposition to desegregation. He also had received, and quickly renounced, an unsolicited endorsement from one faction of the Klan.

But Carter was guilty of overkill last week when he spoke at the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, once the pulpit of Martin Luther King Jr. and Sr. Flanked by the elder King, Coretta Scott King, former Ambassador Andrew Young and Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson, Carter attempted to rally the black vote he needs in force to carry his native region. Said he: "You've seen in this campaign the stirrings of hate and the rebirth of code words like 'states' rights, [and] a campaign reference to the Ku Klux Klan relating to the South. Racism has no place in this country."

Carter seemed to recognize that he was walking a thin line. After charging that Reagan was at variance with the arms-control philosophy of every President since Harry Truman, he added: "I don't want to be misunderstood. I'm not insinuating that my opponent is for war and against peace." Nevertheless, the innuendo was there. After the speech, one Carter adviser lamented: "He looks tawdry and cheap." Said another: "We've got to get him to stop that."

Two days later, at his first press conference in six weeks, duly covered as a presidential, not a political news event by the big three networks, Carter ate up six of the allotted 30 minutes by making an opening statement about his accomplishments--a tactic that so angered the Reagan and Anderson camps that they asked for equal time. They may not have needed it, so thoroughly did reporters question Carter about his "mean" campaign assaults. "Obviously in the heat of a campaign there is some give-and-take on both sides," he said. He twice emphasized that he did not think his opponent was a racist. "The press seems obsessed with this issue," he said.

Reagan's aides were worried about Carter's attacks. Said one: "We could be killed if we let the perception of racism and nuclear war set in without countering it." Some aides argued that he should respond to the President's tactics with strong language of his own. Others urged Reagan to play it cool, claiming that the candidate's mild, aw-shucks style would make Carter's attacks boomerang.

Reagan wisely chose to wear a white hat. "It's harmful and it's shameful because whether we're on opposite sides or not, we ought to be trying to pull the country together, not tear it apart," he lectured the President, obviously pleased at not being on the defensive for a change. George Bush acted the traditional running-mate role of counterpuncher. Said he: "I'm appalled at the ugly, mean little remark Jimmy Carter made last night." Gerald Ford went even further: "His intemperate and totally misleading statements demean the office of the presidency."

As the campaign became more heated, the two candidates dueled last week for Texas' 26 crucial electoral votes. Polls show the race to be close, with Reagan holding a slight edge. Carter barely won Texas in 1976, even with 87% of the Mexican-American vote. Since then, the state's Hispanic population has increased to 18% of the total, and Carter's first stop, logically, was before a largely Spanish-speaking audience in Corpus Christi.

Twice the President broke into Spanish, and he emphasized that he had appointed four times the number of Hispanic federal judges there were when he came into office. Carter's most valuable asset in Texas may be the promised appearances by Ted Kennedy, a hero in the Mexican-American community because of his name and his longstanding work in liberalizing immigration policies. But Reagan was by no means willing to concede the Hispanic vote, taking on the Texas heat, wearing a Mexican guayabera shirt and touting his own record of appointing Hispanics to office. In his enthusiasm, he made his gaffe-of-the-week, proposing that all Mexican aliens who want to work in the U.S. be given visas "for whatever length of time they want to stay." The Governor later retracted the notion, saying that procedures for documenting workers would have to be negotiated, with time periods set for each visa. Reagan's traveling entourage included enough clout to make even a Texan reel: former Governor John Connally, Governor Bill Clements, Senator John Tower, former Ambassador Anne Armstrong, and--drawing the biggest cheers--former Dallas Quarterback Roger Staubach. It paid off: at one dinner, Reagan raised $2.5 million for the state party.

Reagan returned from Texas at mid-week to prepare for Sunday's encounter with John Anderson. He studied an image-molding memo from Pollster Richard Wirthlin with advice that gave an insight into his whole campaign. Some examples: "The Governor is perceived to be a leader. But it will be important that he comes across as less distant, more sympathetic, more caring, and more understanding . . . Show the Governor is capable of enjoying a laugh . . . Keep answers short, even on complex issues."

John Anderson, not expected to be a factor in Texas, also spent much of last week preparing for the debate. "I'm going to rest my voice," he rasped after a twelve-state tour. Anderson got some good news: he has met the petition requirements to get on the ballot in all 50 states, although certification and legal challenges are still under way. Reagan taunted the President: "If he doesn't debate, he will be telling the American people that he will not--that he cannot-- defend his record.

The question remained whether the quickening presidential race will ever produce a debate on America's television screens that includes Carter. The President expressed again his own desire to meet Reagan in debate "anywhere in this nation and as frequently as possible." Reagan did not rule out a one-on-one, saying, "It wouldn't bother me a bit," but still was reluctant to exclude Anderson. Whether or not he would now take on Carter alone, Reagan said, would be decided this week.

--By Walter Isaacson. Reported by Douglas Brew with Reagan and Christopher Ogden with Carter

With reporting by Douglas Brew, Christopher Ogden

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.