Man of the Year: I'm Jimmy Carter, and...

(7 of 12)

When unemployment prevails, they never stand in line looking for a job. When deprivation results from a confused and bewildering welfare system, they never do without food or clothing or a place to sleep. When the public schools are inferior or torn by strife, their children go to exclusive private schools. And when the bureaucracy is bloated and confused, the powerful always manage to discover and occupy niches of special influence and privilege. An unfair tax structure serves their needs. And tight secrecy always seems to prevent reform."

That speech pushed Carter too far to the left, and he later tried to move back toward the middle. But his position in the political spectrum remained unclear, and he alienated many of the independents. On Nov. 2 Ford carried white America by a narrow margin. The Georgian was saved by the Americans who trusted him most: the blacks. They felt at ease with the white Southerner who had fought, though vainly, to integrate his hometown church, and who had put so many blacks into government at all levels in Georgia. Indeed, they had more faith in Carter than in white Northern liberals who had taken no risks on their behalf. Because 87% of the black voters backed him, Carter carried the election.

Five weeks later, caught up in the demanding swirl of the transition, he was asked if the job he was taking on occasionally seemed overwhelming. "Yes," answered the President-elect, "but not so much that I would want someone else to do it."

The economists and businessmen who have been summoned to brief him about the economy have been impressed by his cold concentration. Last month in Plains, he listened to 16 of them for five hours straight—with one five-minute bathroom break. Only water was served. "Before we won, we served Cokes," said Carter, the closest he came to humor. Reports one participant, Economist Arthur Okun: "He is totally able to banish anything, any mortal concerns, like a crick in the backside or thirst or hunger or anything else." Adds Economist Walter Heller: "We call him 'Iron Pants.'"

Discursing economists are resigned to seeing the eyes of politicians glaze over, but Carter stayed so alert that he caught the experts in a couple of minor mistakes and raised questions about them. In terms of intelligence, Heller estimates Carter would rank among the upper 5% or 10% of graduate students in top universities. Says Okun: "What struck me is you really see an engineer's mind at work, not a peanut farmer, not a Baptist preacher, not a standard politician, but the engineering and management-science approach."

As a sound manager, Carter plans to restore the powers of the Cabinet Secretaries, so badly eroded by Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon. In addition to regular Cabinet meetings, Carter intends to have smaller groups of Secretaries confer on issues that cut across departmental lines, such as urban development. "I'll use the Cabinet very aggressively," he says. "I don't intend to run the departments from the White House. I'm going to have a relatively small staff, and I'll trust my Cabinet members to manage their own departments." Press Secretary Jody Powell, 33, explains that Carter's organization chart does not have the White House at the top and everything else below in descending tiers.