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Udall is undeniably liberal on the basic economic issues. He enthusiastically endorses Government-guaranteed full employment and is willing to accept inflation as a side effect of such a policy. He thinks jawboning industries and a wage-price board that "yells like hell when steel companies raise prices" would help keep inflation under control. He wants to federalize the welfare system and enact national health insurance. He believes in keeping the energy growth rate down to 2% a year to conserve resources, a proposal he made in June 1975. He wants to save the country's land from the ravages of strip mining and unrestrained exploitation of its resources by carefully developing coal and publicly owned fossil fuel. He proposes breaking up oil companies both vertically and horizontally.
In foreign policy, he flatly opposes covert action by the CIA, though he does not mind "having spies in the Kremlin, in the P.L.O., and in the Portuguese army. We need a professional CIA and we should give back its dignity." He admires Pat Moynihan's tough approach to the Third World. He would focus foreign policy on a "few geographical areas that are important to our national interest and not get involved in brushfire wars." He advocates substantial cuts in the defense budget and wants a "lean and efficient" military.
Udall places most of his emphasis on restoring trust in American leadership. Polls during the Massachusetts primary rated him high among the voters on honesty and decency. But for all his attractive characteristics, he still faces an immense challenge. One old classmate at the University of Arizona recalls that whenever Udall, as captain of the college basketball team, "got his hands on the ball at center court, he'd shoot." He's still playing the long shot now, firing away from center-left court, hoping to sink it and win.