(5 of 5)
Carter professes to welcome his underdog status, maintaining that he has always campaigned best when he is behind. His strategy for Anderson is to ignore him publicly. With Carter's blessing, however, the Democratic National Committee last week set aside $225,000 to hire lawyers who will try to keep Anderson off the ballot in 13 key states, including California, New York and Ohio. Anderson already is on the ballot in Kansas, New Jersey and Utah. For Reagan, Carter has settled on a more aggressive strategy. The President's aides will keep reminding voters this summer about the Californian's more outrageous statements, like his proposal that the U.S. blockade Cuba in retaliation against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Then, come fall, Carter himself will pound away at Reagan as a dangerous extremist.
Carter and his aides will not ignore Kennedy entirely, but they are determined not to waste much time on him. Said a political adviser to the President: "We prefer to work with him, and we are anxious to accommodate him any way we can. But if we cannot, we have no choice but to do it without him."