The Nation: The Straightest Arrow

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For five weeks before the Democratic Convention, the race for the vice-presidential nomination had been run and rerun within the confines of Jimmy Carter's methodical mind.

Carter kept his own counsel about the result to the last. Just before 8:30 a.m. on the day after his nomination, Carter quietly slipped word of his choice to the Secret Service, so that it could arrange protection. Then Carter told his wife Rosalynn, who had specifically asked not to be informed any sooner because she feared that she might not be able to keep the secret. At 8:30, Carter put through a call to the fancy Carlyle Hotel on Manhattan's Upper East Side. "Would you like to run with me?" Carter asked. Minnesota's Senator Walter Frederick "Fritz" Mondale, 48, needed no time at all to think about his answer. It was a quick, much relieved yes. Except for the formalities, the Democrats had their 1976 ticket.

The vice-presidential choice is often a frantic afterthought, a decision argued out in the exhausted nominee's hotel suite in the small hours after the presidential balloting has ended. But Jimmy Carter, assured of his convention victory weeks beforehand, painstakingly canvassed some 40 national leaders for their suggestions.* He prepared preliminary lists, then dispatched his Atlanta confidant, Lawyer Charles Kirbo, to interview the possible choices (TIME, July 12). Kirbo took along questionnaires: "What is the condition of your health? Have you ever had psychiatric or other treatment? If divorced, in what court?" And so on. Kirbo asked about financial records, about any potential scandals in the background. (One of Glenn's aides said it was like "filing a loan application with Household Finance.") Then Carter settled on seven finalists. All were from Congress. Having run in the primaries on an anti-Washington theme, Carter needed a Mr. Inside to go along with his Mr. Outside image. Among other things, there will be both a new Speaker of the House and Senate Majority Leader next January, and Carter understands the need for a good working relationship with the Hill.

Some suspected that Carter's search was merely a publicity stunt—like David O. Selznick's nationwide search for the perfect Scarlett O'Hara—to enliven a convention that was otherwise a foregone conclusion. The evidence suggests, however, that Carter was honestly looking for the candidate who best fulfilled his three criteria: 1) qualification to serve as President; 2) compatibility of views; and 3) regional or ideological balance.

New Jersey Congressman Peter Rodino, apparently never a serious contender, eventually took himself out of consideration, citing age (67) and eye trouble (possible glaucoma). Senators Adlai Stevenson III of Illinois and Henry Jackson of Washington seemed to trail from the outset. After the June 8 primaries, Idaho Senator Frank Church appeared the likely favorite. Entering the primaries late, Church proved an effective campaigner, winning in Nebraska, Oregon, Idaho and Montana. He had expertise where Carter was weakest, in foreign affairs. But Church faded fast. It is said that some fellow Senators advised against him and probably more important, Kirbo was not overly impressed with him.