THE PRESIDENCY: More Than a Candidate

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"You have to appeal to people's best instincts, not their worst ones. You may win an election or so by doing the other, but it does a lot of harm to the country." —Harry Truman

Old Harry (in bronze) stares right across the Oval Office at Jimmy Carter every day, but the message is not getting through. Carter's hyperbole on his own greatness and Ronald Reagan's shortcomings and John Anderson's illegitimacy as a candidate now comes close to being fiction. The totality of the White House assault on every Reagan word and phrase and on Anderson's effort to gain a wider audience seems at times a serious perversion of the campaign system. The wrath that escapes Carter's lips about racism and hatred when he prays and poses as the epitome of Christian charity leads even his supporters to protest his meanness, a judgment that was hardened last Thursday in the sour press conference where the President sought to dispel that very accusation.

There has been a body of muted opinion since the first days of Carter's stewardship contending that behind the beatific smile and inside the big heart lurks a nasty impulse, most often contained by success but apt to escape in times of stress and failure. Thus did Carter say unfortunate things publicly about Hubert Humphrey, Ted Kennedy and Cyrus Vance. But almost always the calm returned, and for the most part Carter appeared to practice the good will that he preached and prayed.

The past few days have revealed a man capable of far more petty vituperation than most Americans thought possible even in a dank political season. Maybe, as Truman says, Carter can win an election or two by being mean. But maybe not.

The thing that has sustained Carter through his time of leadership has been his personal appeal, a good man struggling to get experience against impossible odds and sinister forces. Now he seems to threaten that very icon of decency that he has created with such labor. He has turned away for the moment from his old friend St. Mark: "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"

True, Reagan and Anderson are not men of unassailable political virtue. Reagan tried to link Carter with the Ku Klux Klan, and his exaggerations of the state of the world have at times transcended reality. But not even the Democrats suggest that Reagan is mean. Slow, maybe, but nice. Anderson has some of Carter's righteous evangelical fervor, which can be disturbing, but it has not been cruel. He has a perfect right to take a run at the brass ring.

A point that Carter seems to miss—once again—is that he is more than a candidate. First and foremost, he is President. The incumbency offers great conveniences and advantages in a presidential contest. But like the rest of life, with extra privilege comes extra responsibility. "Being bitter," mused Truman, "that's for people who aren't busy with other matters." Jimmy Carter should be so busy.