Nation: Making Like October 1980

Carter campaigns from the snowy East to the balmy West

The pace was more appropriate to October 1980. There was Jimmy Carter zipping from an S.R.O. press conference in Washington to Albuquerque, San Diego, and then back to the White House for a two-hour weekend phone-in that was broadcast by National Public Radio. Back in the capital barely long enough to refuel Air Force One, he will be off politicking again this week—in Kansas City, Chicago and Boston.

Carter's press conference ended a hiatus of nearly three months, despite his promise on taking office to...