(10 of 10)
Out of this welter of conflicting interests—industrial, regional, ideological—Jimmy Carter and Jim Schlesinger must seek to fashion a national consensus. The stage is set for a full-scale political drama, most likely a cliffhanger. As a leading character in that drama, Schlesinger, for all his unwillingness to suffer those he considers fools, should have a reassuring effect. As he puffs on his briar and voices dispassionate opinions about the looming crisis, he exudes the old-fashioned values of patriotism and self-reliance. The energy crisis is making that turn of mind much needed for Americans of today—and tomorrow.
* British thermal unit, a measure of energy based on the quantity of heat required to raise one pound of water one degree Fahrenheit.