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In the celebrated Playboy interview, when he admitted that he had "lusted in my heart" after other women, Carter was explaining that he did not judge other people because he had felt sinful impulses himself. (Earlier he had said, "I have never been unfaithful to my wife.") By discussing such a touchy subject with Playboy, however, Carter was showing judgment that was at best naive.
HIS HEDGING ON ISSUES. When Carter proclaimed, "I'll never tell a lie," he was setting himself up to be measured by a stiffer standard than any other politician. In fact, he trimmed or fuzzed no more than other candidates—including Ford—but not much less either. He equivocated on which was the most important priority in dealing with the economy: first it was creating new jobs, then it was fighting inflation, then it was a kind of balance between the two. After meeting with a group of Catholic bishops, Carter hedged his outright opposition to any anti-abortion amendment, then quickly switched back again.
He often states positions in a manner intended to give the least possible of fense to his audience. To a conservative audience: "We should not withdraw our troops from South Korea, except on a phased basis." He also has a way of seeming to agree with an argument—he smiles, he says, "I understand"—that leads people to think he is agreeing with them, thereby raising false expectations. One of the serious problems of Carter's presidency may be a tendency to raise expectations too high, to promise more than he can deliver.
HIS HYBRID POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY. Carter is a Democrat who often talks and thinks like a Republican. The former Navy officer and nuclear engineer is an efficiency expert who values long-range planning and prides himself on his managerial ability ("I like to run things"). He also considers himself to be a fiscal conservative, a businessman who has had to meet a payroll,* and he pledges to produce a balanced budget by the end of his first term.
But if his mind is set on the conservative goals of efficiency and solvency, his heart belongs to the vibrant populism that he acquired—as naturally as his accent—while growing up on a south Georgia farm during the Depression. He stems from 240 years of Southern yeomanry whose natural enemies were bankers and big landlords. The President-elect recalls the day in the '30s when Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal brought electricity to his farmhouse outside Plains. Although the Carters were not poor, they saw the moment as a telling example of what the Federal Government can do for the needy.
After the nomination was won. Carter stood beaming in Madison Square Garden while the band blared out Happy Days Are Here Again, the same tune he used to hear in the '30s when Mr. Earl would hitch up a radio to the car battery and the family would huddle around to listen to F.D.R.'s triumphs. In his acceptance speech, Carter returned to the themes of populism, soothing liberals who had doubted him and jarring moderates who had started to support him. The key passage:
"Too many have had to suffer at the hands of a political and economic elite who have shaped decisions and never had to account for mistakes nor to suffer from injustice.