The Nation: The Straightest Arrow

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...

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