Nation: Praising with Faint Damns

Most foreign leaders prefer Carter—but reluctantly

During the 1972 presidential campaign several Italian newspapers suggested that choosing the leader of the West was too important a decision to be left only to Americans. It is a notion that world leaders would eagerly endorse this year. Although they are discreetly keeping their feelings to themselves, they are watching the 1980 campaign with varying degrees of disdain and dismay. In general, they like none of the three candidates, though most would reluctantly cast their ballots for Jimmy Carter. West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt expressed one major reason when he told aides, "At least...

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