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Hyperbole has also been a difficulty for the President and has exacerbated doubt about him. Four minutes after meeting President Hafez Assad of Syria, Carter described him before television cameras as one of his "favorite leaders," thoroughly confusing Assad, not to mention Israel. Visiting Tehran, Carter sang the praises of the Shah, then jettisoned the Iranian leader when the King of Kings began to fall; the episode was one of the sorriest in the Administration. The President's description of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan as "the most serious threat to peace since the Second World War" was another overstatement that confused Americans and foreigners alike. If it was so serious, why did not the U.S. try to do something far more impressive about it? Carter has described both the hostages in Iran and the Cuban refugees as "my most pressing human problems." The President hyperbolizes in another way—he regularly exaggerates his record. The Wall Street Journal recently called Carter's claim that he had a better legislative record than Franklin Roosevelt a "travesty," and proved it.
His on-the-job training has been a very painful process for Carter. He hurt himself from the start by both expecting and promising too much. He arrived in Washington with an almost limitless list of priorities that was too much, too soon. Some close aides maintain the President has benefited from that. "He's learned how to prioritize and to say no," says Strauss. "The Panama Canal treaties were important, but he should have worked harder on energy first." If Carter wins again, says Strauss, "he's got to work on long-term planning."
White House Counsel Cutler, who has advised past Presidents and who knows more than anyone else in the White House about how Washington works, believes that Carter has absorbed a great deal in four years. "He's learned the need for balance and knows now he can't achieve all of his goals at the same time. Everyone who has never been President thinks he can do it all if only he had those reins. This President has learned to put things in much better perspective."
Carter has discovered the importance of repeating his message over and over again to make sure that it gets through undistorted. "He has learned that the President is above all a teacher," says Wexler. In the course of his campaigning, swooping down in his gleaming silver-and-blue Air Force One jet to land in Tallahassee or Boston, St. Louis or Tacoma, he has done some of the best explaining of his Administration.
Extremely well organized and prepared, the President targets his audiences carefully. In Boston, with Kennedy at his side, Carter appears before an audience of some 500 elderly people and effectively portrays Reagan as a foe of Social Security, Medicare, health insurance and unemployment insurance. The old people applaud. To New Jersey labor leaders, Carter says Reagan opposes labor law reform. Scoffs Carter: "Ronald Reagan says unemployment compensation is a free paid vacation for freeloaders." In a state where the race is close, but a must win for Carter, the labor leaders nod and nudge each other.