In Jimmy Carter's small and tranquil study down the hall from the Oval Office, a black loose-leaf notebook takes up a proud place on a bookshelf that is crowded from end to end with epics of man's struggles through wars, pestilence and economic disaster. The notebook is warmed by sunlight and caressed by piped-in Brahms. That is fitting. Within the notebook's 111 tidy pages, divided by ten pink tabs, is a fantasy that needs sunbursts and violins.
It is the story of a U.S. freed of dependence on foreign energy, cleansing its air and water, dispensing swift justice, conquering unemployment, choking...