An Interview with Ferraro

On the joys and challenges of her unprecedented candidacy

CONVENTION. Between strategy meetings with Walter Mondale and work sessions with aides who are drafting her acceptance speech, Geraldine Ferraro took time last Saturday afternoon to meet with TIME Correspondent John F. Stacks. Savoring the sun on the deck of a rented Lake Tahoe resort home, Ferraro was relaxed and jocular and occasionally complained about the inevitable "sexist" questions. Her husband John Zaccaro and her daughters Laura and Donna sat near by and sometimes interjected thoughts of their own. Excerpts from the interview:

Q. Did you despair over press reports that you had...