Nation: He Wasn't in Touch

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Voters explain why they abandoned Kennedy for Carter

Before he announced his presidential candidacy. Senator Edward Kennedy led President Carter by 2-to-1 in a poll conducted for TIME by the public opinion research firm of Yankelovich, Shelly and White, Inc. But in the latest survey, taken in late January, that ranking was stunningly reversed. To find out what caused so many people to change their minds, TIME correspondents across the nation interviewed a sampling of the ex-Kennedy supporters who had been polled by Yankelovich. Most of them now lean toward Carter.

The Kennedy name. The remembrance of things past, of Jack and Bobby, not as they were but as they now seem to have been. That was Ted Kennedy's biggest political asset when he started his campaign in November. Explained Pharmacist Ken Dockter, 23, in Grafton, N.D.: "Right away you think of John Kennedy and Robert Kennedy and you kind of get pulled into it." Said Leroy Allen, 52, a black steelworker in Gary, Ind., who voted for John Kennedy in 1960: "Who can lead us to the promised land? Everybody's looking for Moses." Boston University Political Science Major Robert Aleknas, 21, thought Kennedy was the ideal man "to turn things around economically at home and with other countries abroad."

Now Aleknas, like many other voters, is asking: "Why did I think that?" Indeed, the Camelot legacy is turning out to be one of Kennedy's biggest handicaps, as many voters learn that he is not living up to their mythic memories of his brothers. Said Aleknas: "I was looking at the name and not the man. I realize that now." Said Steelworker Allen: "Strength is what we're seeking, and you have to ask, 'How much strength does the man have?' " Tren Miller, 30, a high school science teacher in La Vista, Neb., had hoped that the "Kennedy excitement would come forth again. It didn't, and I've been disappointed. For someone who's been in politics as long as he has, he should be more articulate." Others were surprised at how ill-prepared Kennedy seemed at many appearances. Said Glenn Kinduell, 27, an industrial-cleanser salesman in Fort Wayne, Ind.: "He seems more mortal now."

Many Kennedy backers began switching to Carter during the Iranian crisis. Said Detroit Air Traffic Clerk Betsy McCamman, 29: "It's not what Carter did, it's what he didn't do. He didn't overreact." Then Kennedy dismayed still other backers by attacking deposed Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi. To James Schroeder, 33, a hotel bellman in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., this was "dirty pool." Said he: "If anything, Kennedy should have attacked the militants. He should have supported the President." Complained Richard Maynard, 30, a high school social studies teacher in Philadelphia: "There was a move for national unity, and Kennedy wasn't in touch with that at all."