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The next day, Thursday, the " President, Rosalynn, Vice President Walter Mondale, Chief Aide Hamiloton Jordan, Press Secretary Jody Powell, Image Builder Gerald Rafshoon. Domestic Affairs Adviser Stuart Eizenstat and Pollster Patrick Caddell gathered around a table in the President's Aspen Lodge and drew up lists of people to invite to the summit. The lists were broken into broad headings—one was "religious and ethical leaders," later inevitably nicknamed "the God squad"—and organized day by day. Aides began phoning invitations Friday morning, and the first group, a hastily assembled collection of eight Governors, arrived for dinner that night. Eventually, 134 people were shuttled to the mountaintop.
They did not constitute a representative sample of national leadership. Many of the guests, even from private life, had close ties to Carter or to previous Democratic Administrations. Barbara Newell, president of Wellesley College, professed herself surprised to be invited. She should not have been taken aback; she is slated to be named by Carter as Under Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare.
Hardly any Republicans were asked, a strange oversight for a President seeking to build a national consensus. No G.O.P. Representatives at all were included among the 18 Congressmen who were invited. Republicans blamed House Speaker Tip O'Neill, who retorted that the Congressmen had been selected by White House Aide Frank Moore. Huffed House G.O.P. Leader John Rhodes: "I'm not upset. It's his business whom he invites." In one or two cases, invitations appeared to be bartered for favors. Colorado Governor Richard Lamm, a sharp critic of Carter, was offered an invitation if he would join other Democrats in a Governors Conference resolution endorsing the President's renomination. Lamm a stained from the vote and 3 the summit.
Most of the guests gathered at the White House, from which vans whisked them to a makeshift helipad hard by the Reflecting Pool and the Washington Monument for the flight to Camp David. Arriving there, they were met by Secret Service men and ushered to the Laurel Lodge, where Carter joined them for breakfast, lunch or dinner and long postmeal talks; one lasted five hours, until from routine (steak and fresh vegetables) to exotic ("ten-boy curry," an Indian dish so named because ten mess boys supposedly are required to serve it and its condiments).
To the relief of many visitors who had been reading about the President's exhaustion on his return from the Tokyo summit, Carter appeared relaxed and in good spirits. He jogged with guests in the mornings, joked with them at meals and conducted one evening session seated on the floor of the Aspen Lodge. Many guests were charmed by the President's informal, down-home hospitality.