Nation: Carter's Professional Politician

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Working closely with Democratic National Chairman John C. White, Kraft also plays the quiet troubleshooter in a variety of delicate situations. For instance, in Puerto Rico, rival factions for two years have been contending for control of the party apparatus. One of the issues is whether the island will have a presidential primary in 1980 or continue to select convention delegates by caucus. Kraft, who speaks Spanish well and has built a strong bond with the group backing primaries, helped to coax a "compromise" through the Democratic National Committee that favors the pro-Carter faction and im proves the prospects for a primary. Should Carter face a challenge from another Democrat in 1980, he would benefit from an early contest in a friendly setting.

Kraft is an old hand at local politics. Among his earliest memories as a child in Republican Noblesville, Ind., are the thumping defeats suffered by his Democratic relatives in campaigns for local of fice. After majoring in government at Dartmouth ('63) and spending two years in the Peace Corps building latrines and wells for Guatemalan villagers, Kraft became a kind of political nomad: to Washington for a time as a Peace Corps recruiter, to Mexico with the 1968 Olympics committee, to California for a bit part in Jesse Unruh's unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign, back to Indiana to manage a losing congressional race, off to the West as a roving Democratic fund raiser. Between jobs, he escaped for travel in South America or Europe, or for backpacking and skiing in the U.S. In 1974, while serving as executive director of the Democratic Party in New Mexico, he met Jimmy Carter. "I was impressed," Kraft says, "though I thought he didn't have a chance to get the nomination." But Kraft joined the Carter campaign anyway, first as manager of Carter's crucial caucus victory in Iowa, later as director of Carter's climactic primary win in Pennsylvania.

The first White House job Kraft held was that of appointments secretary—the keeper of the presidential door and time clock. He has always had a comfortable relationship with his boss, though he has never been as close to Carter as Jordan or Jody Powell. Carter seems to welcome Kraft's puckish sense of humor.

Once, after Carter dressed him down for letting a day's schedule get too crowded, Kraft sent him a bogus schedule for the following Saturday—a day normally kept light. It was heavy with names of people Carter preferred not to see any day of the week.

Like Carter's other top assistants, Kraft is a total loyalist. "You have career people who are dedicated to the presidency and I admire that," Kraft says.

"But there must be some people who are dedicated solely to the President, people who go flat out for this particular President. For me the criterion is, 'What's best for Jimmy Carter?' "