Rather Outspoken by Dan Rather

Author:Dan Rather [RATHER, DAN/DIEHL, DIGBY]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781455502424
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: 2012-05-01T00:00:00+00:00

Carter

President Carter became a favorite of the press during the 1976 presidential campaign because he was something new. Johnson was pure Texas to the core, but that is different from being a Southerner. Carter sounded exactly like Georgia; more than that, he surrounded himself with people from Georgia.

In the beginning, he and the members of his new administration tried very hard to be different. Worse, Carter made a point of saying that different was better. He was certain that those fresh, beyond the Beltway Georgia voices were exactly what the country needed. The downside of that posture was that instead of embracing Republican and Democratic insiders, he stayed aloof.

Payback for Carter, as it is for so many in politics, was a bitch. After he walled off the DC establishment, they walled him off in retribution, which meant Carter couldn’t get anything done. That became the central problem of his presidency. He was as tone deaf about the levers of power in Washington as Johnson was adept. Over and above bringing in his loyal but inexperienced campaign people to fill high positions in the administration, what he needed was a really good insider—a Beltway pit bull—to be his White House chief of staff.

That would have made him much more effective in getting his agenda through Congress, but Carter vowed never to be part of the Washington elite and tried to sell that to the press. The press knew better and was having none of it. “Excuse me, Mr. President, but by virtue of the office you hold, you are the ultimate Washington insider.”

Those two elements pretty much decided how he was received. There was a testy side to Carter, and it would flash from time to time. By mid-presidency the press wasn’t actively hostile to him, but the honeymoon was certainly over.

Carter was unquestionably a smart guy. Although he campaigned as the peanut farmer from Plains, he had graduated from Annapolis and trained as a nuclear engineer. That engineer mentality didn’t necessarily serve him well. He loved being involved in the details, to the point of getting entangled by minutiae that should have been delegated to staff. That said, given any standard IQ test, he would probably score competitively with two of our brightest contemporary presidents, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama—perhaps higher, because Carter was so strong in math and physics.

One of the first interviews I did with President Carter made it clear that he was a very bright guy who wanted to appear as an honest, sincere person with the country’s best interests at heart. He did, however, let himself go much too far in his “just folks” candor. At the suggestion of my producer, Steve Glauber, I asked him to grade himself as a president. A shrewder or more wily politician might have replied, “That’s for other people to do.” But Carter was into honesty, so he went down the line and actually answered the question.

“Let’s see. On domestic policy, I’d give myself a C plus. I’m getting better on foreign policy, but I think I’ve only shown a C there.

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