Engineering the Victory

As Jimmy Carter's confidant, factotum and campaign manager from the first, Hamilton Jordan, 32, can be described as the chief architect of his boss's campaign. In an interview with TIME Correspondent John Stacks, Jordan (pronounced Jer-din) discussed his winning strategy:

Q. What was the critical ingredient in Governor Carter's victory?

A. The fact that the man—and his family—worked for four years, campaigned all over the country and understood the mood of the country and was able to address that in a positive way.

Q. What went wrong during the fall?

A. When you become as well known as rapidly as Jimmy has, it's impossible for the voters to have a deep understanding. During spring and summer they saw Carter and they liked him and wanted to know more about him. In September, instead of adding to the understanding, we distracted the electorate—Clarence Kelley, Playboy.

Q. Can you identify a turning point?

A. From the last part of the first debate on, we made progress. From that point on there was no doubt we were going to win.

Q. Your prime goal was to make the Ford record, not Jimmy Carter, the issue. Was that ever possible?

A. Yes. If he hadn't said and done a couple of things, the Ford record would have been the issue. But Jimmy Carter is always going to be somewhat the issue with people who don't know much about him. He's a more complex man than most politicians. At the same time, he is in a lot of ways a very simple man. He is a farmer, he is from a small home town, he's close to his family, he is a religious man.

Q. What were his greatest strengths as a campaigner?

A. His determination, his commitment. The Playboy thing would have destroyed a lot of lesser candidates.

Q. His greatest weaknesses?

A. I don't think these are weaknesses, but we would have fared better if he had not been so accessible and so open. I regret it in that the Playboy thing hurt us.

But I also think it's a quality that people can relate to and has been a plus. You know, we never thought it was going to be easy. There were a lot of little mistakes. Concentrating on one state more than another. We had some problems with advance work on the road. But we all made a good effort. In the last ten days of the campaign, I felt like the real differences in the two men started to come through. Ford was very safe, maintaining the status quo, not rocking the boat. Carter [conveyed] the feeling that he's going to try some things [and be] bolder in his approach to problems. I think we did so well because there is a willingness to take a risk, because [people] want a change.

Q. Did you do enough to involve other Democrats?

A. I'm sure we could have done more. I wish I could give you the names of those people who told Jimmy that they're not being used who had been called five or six times. I don't think we would ever have gotten as much out of them as would have a Humphrey or a Kennedy or someone who was known to them personally. But I doubt too that we got all we could from them. That's probably our fault.

Q. You've been at this for quite a while. Have you enjoyed it?