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Some disaffected Democrats even saw a growing possibility that the convention could be thrown open to draft Secretary of State Edmund Muskie or Vice President Walter Mondale.
Declared a pro-Carter Democratic chairman in a Southeastern state: "It's terrible. It's hurt our image and the party's image. People are beginning to wonder, 'Is the President any smarter than his brother is?' " Claimed George Shipley, a Democratic Party pollster in Texas: "To put it crudely, it looks like the Beverly Hillbillies in the White House."
Jewish voters, who normally cast Democratic ballots, were particularly incensed at a member of the President's family getting so cozy with Libya, one of Israel's most vociferous Arab antagonists. Said Meyer Berger, a Pittsburgh businessman and leading Democratic fund raiser: "The Billy Carter connection is the killing blow. It finishes off President Carter with the Jewish vote all over the country. I'm sorry about that because he deserves better."
Republicans could barely conceal their glee. Candidate Reagan sounded artfully sympathetic, saying, "You cannot confine relatives of elected officials to not having careers of their own." A Reagan aide was more direct: "The thing is going along just fine without any help from us."
A common Republican theme was expressed by Ernest Gallardo, executive assistant for the Oregon Republican Committee: "If Carter can't keep tabs on his family, how can he be expected to run the country?" Mississippi Republican Chairman Mike Retzer took the analogy a step further, asking, "If the President can't control Billy, how can he control Brezhnev?" In Cleveland, Cuyahoga County Republican Chairman Bob Hughes called the Billy episode "Watergate revisited," adding: "The idea of America's foremost beer drinker negotiating with Gaddafi or Hamilton Jordan negotiating with Panama over the Shah makes you wonder what the hell was the State Department doing."
Even politically neutral observers felt the President had been badly hurt. Georgia Pollster Claibourne Darden predicted that, coming on top of the President's other problems, the Billy factor would be especially harmful. Explained Darden: "If everything was going fine otherwise, the reaction would just be 'It's his stupid brother,' but now Billy's image transfers to Jimmy." California Pollster Mervin Field felt that the Billy affair provides "a disturbing reminder" of the President's previous embarrassing friendship for wheeler-dealer Banker and White House Insider Bert Lance. "The Billy thing puts President Carter on the defensive," said Pollster Louis Harris. "He will not really be able to campaign in his favorite way with high moral dudgeon."
About the only consolation Democrats could find in the President's predicament was that Republicans might push too hard to evoke Watergate and create a backlash of sympathy for Jimmy. Noted former Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis: "We all have someone in our family tree who gets a little wild sometimes." Argued Danny Cupit, a top Carter worker in Mississippi: "The acts of the brother should not be imputed to the President." Observed New York Mayor Ed Koch: "The