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Many Southerners are fond of comparing Carter to Franklin Roosevelt. Said Pulmer Harden, 75, over a belt-busting dinner of fried chicken and corn bread at Ma Hull's restaurant in Atlanta: "He's taking over like Roosevelt did, when the country is down and whipped." Vanderbilt University Chancellor Alexander Heard makes the same comparison-limited though it is since the situation today is quite different. He thinks Carter may have the tougher job. Said Heard: "F.D.R. faced a clear crisis; Carter faces something more difficult: a chronic crisis. In 1933 the fiscal resources of the Government were almost untapped; today they're badly strained. Then, federal programs were a novel way of solving problems; today we have the sense that even elaborate, well-staffed federal programs aren't the answer. Finally, there's an added burden for leadership today of having to prove integrity and good intentions almost every day."
Nonetheless, Heard believes that "Carter is tough enough to do the things needed. My hope is that he is imaginative enough." Added Janice May, a political scientist at the Austin campus of the University of Texas: "This is change, and change is for the best. I'm looking forward to it because Carter has a combination of backgrounds that we haven't had before." Still, most people are not letting their enthusiasm for Carter outrun their native caution. A century of disappointments and a traditional "show-me" attitude toward newcomers in public office keep most Southerners from expecting too much of any new Administration, even if it is headed by one of their own.