1988 Democratic National Convention : Once Virtual Outcast, Ex-President Plays Big Role in Atlanta : Carter Making Public Opinion Comeback

Former President Jimmy Carter, scornfully rejected by American voters in 1980 and humiliated even by some of his fellow Democrats at the party’s last two nominating conventions, sank so low in public esteem that friends tried to launch a public relations campaign to refurbish his image.

Carter rejected the idea, leaving his advisers perplexed “and a little irritated,” as one put it, that the former President would block a plan to repair his tattered reputation by focusing attention on the public service work he was engaged in as an ex-President.

“His attitude,” recalls former White House Press Secretary Jody Powell, “was that ‘it will happen when it happens.’ “Now,” Powell says, “I’d have to say it looks like he was right.”

Indeed so. Slowly but unmistakably, a change has begun to take place in the way the public in general, and Democratic politicians in particular, look at the first Democratic President to lose a bid for reelection since Grover Cleveland in 1888. The resurrection of Jimmy Carter is under way.

People Feel Better

Polls show that people feel much better about his presidency today than they did when he was in office. And the Democratic Party this year is welcoming him back with open arms.

Indeed, where once he was a virtual outcast, he has regained enough prestige and political clout that some Democratic leaders see him as a unifying force in this election year. Some even suggested Carter might serve as a mediator between Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis, the soon-to-be nominee, and the Rev. Jesse Jackson, the unreconciled runner-up.

Carter’s Advice Sought

Dukakis and Jackson both have sought Carter’s advice during the race for the nomination and the Democrats have scheduled a starring role for the former President at the Democratic convention, which opens in Atlanta today.

Carter’s high-profile role in Atlanta stands in stark contrast to his participation in the party convention four years ago in San Francisco.

There, Democrats wrangled over whether to invite him even to speak, many fearing he would remind voters of his unpopular Administration and his devastating loss to Ronald Reagan in 1980.

Carter himself felt so weighted down by the continuing indignities and criticism after he left office that when he was asked what he thought his role should be in San Francisco, he said: “I would hope I would not be a detriment to anybody, particularly the ticket.”

Since the nominee was to be Walter F. Mondale, who had served as Carter’s vice president, the Democrats finally decided they had to invite the former President to speak. So they tried to relegate him to a time slot when there would be no live television coverage, a move that caused two angry Carter advisers--Bert Lance and Terrance Adamson--to threaten to cancel the speech unless it was televised live.

Convention officials backed down and scheduled the appearance for prime time.

In Atlanta, the Democrats have enthusiastically arranged for the former Georgia governor to speak in prime time tonight and have scheduled a series of major convention-related events at the Carter Presidential Center of Emory University, located adjacent to the presidential library.

At the behest of both Dukakis and Democratic Chairman Paul G. Kirk Jr., Carter will make statements at two different panel discussions on political issues at the center, a think tank and social-action institution that has addressed major domestic and foreign issues and attracted national and international leaders since its founding in 1982.

At the 1980 convention in New York, when the incumbent President finally beat down a bitter challenge by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy and secured the nomination, Kennedy humiliated Carter by showing up late at the podium, giving the President a perfunctory handshake and then--trailed by a puzzled Carter--walking around the platform raising his fist to chants from the Massachusetts delegation of “We Want Ted.”

Eight years later, Carter still smarts from the insult and from Kennedy’s lukewarm endorsement of his candidacy. Kennedy’s actions caused “a horrible division” in the party and dealt “a devastating blow” to his own reelection efforts, Carter recently told The Times.

Has No Hard Feelings

But Carter insists he harbors no hard feelings and has invited Kennedy to a luncheon meeting at the Carter Center today for about 200 former Cabinet members and senior aides of past Democratic administrations, as well as past and present Democratic congressional leaders.

In fact, the former President has agreed to a request by Kennedy for a private meeting during the convention, according to a Carter adviser.

A more concrete measure of Carter’s rejuvenation among the public is to be found in polling data on voter attitudes.

Shortly before he left the White House, Carter had a job-approval rating of only 34%, according to a Gallup poll.

By contrast, a recent Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll showed Americans now approve of the way he handled his job by 47% to 43%. Moreover, recent polls show that Democrats approve of Carter’s job performance by a margin of about 2 to 1.

Climb to Respectability

Carter’s climb back to respectability has not been easy. Some of his own Democratic colleagues have shunned him and Republicans have found him a handy punching bag.

For the most part, he has endured the snubs and attacks in silence. He has gone about quietly raising funds for the Carter Library; arranging and hosting seminars and other events at the Carter Center; writing “Keep the Faith,” his own memoirs, and two other books, as well as co-authoring a fourth with his wife, Rosalynn; and regularly hammering nails and sawing boards for Habitat for Humanity, a nonprofit group that builds homes for the homeless.

Shortly after the convention, Carter plans a trip to several African nations, where he is working on projects to improve health care and food production. Financed mostly by foreign philanthropists, the former President has already undertaken such missions in nations including Nigeria, Ghana, Pakistan, Bangladesh and China.

Eradicating a Disease

His effort in Ghana, he said, is aimed at eradicating a tropical disease called guinea worm. And in China, he has established programs to train several hundred counselors for the handicapped and to build factories to produce artificial limbs for paraplegics.

In Pakistan, Carter said, doctors financed through one of his programs discovered that a major cause of infant mortality was the use of a substance called ghee--a form of butter made from buffalo’s milk--on babies’ umbilical cords. “Now we’re starting an additional program in Pakistan to educate midwives and doctors and nurses that this is a major cause of infant mortality,” he said.

Higher Political Profile

Closer to home, Carter is adopting a higher political profile. In 1986, after repeated attacks by Reagan, Carter finally struck back, declaring it was “more than a human being can stand.” He publicly accused Reagan of “habitually” stating “things he knows not to be true,” things Carter claims Reagan had “personally promised me not to repeat.”

Despite Carter’s accusations, Reagan has continued to attack his Administration’s record. And Vice President George Bush has invoked Carter’s name in attacking Dukakis, warning that election of the Democratic candidate could return the country to the high interest rates and double-digit inflation of the Carter Administration.

But Carter’s comeback has given Republicans second thoughts about how far they should go in attacking him in the 1988 campaign. For one thing, even in the darkest days of Carter’s presidency, people who were critical of his job performance and considered him a weak and ineffective President, gave him relatively high marks for honesty and integrity and for trying to do the right thing and caring about the average person.

Carter Not Concerned

Carter insists that despite all of the criticism of his Administration and questions about his competence as a President, he is not concerned about either what history or Republicans say about him.

“As you know,” he said in an interview at his presidential library, “like others who run for President I have a super degree of self-confidence. I ran for President against insurmountable odds and won. In my own subjective judgment I thought I did a good job as President and I’m at ease with what history might say.”

Carter said Bush is engaging in “a frivolous approach to politics” when he criticizes him and his Administration in attacking the Dukakis candidacy.

“I think Bush has a problem with silliness anyway,” Carter said. “For him to go back 10 years and dwell on the problem of my Administration--inflation and so forth--is a signal to many people that he’s not substantive. They think he ought to be out dealing with Dukakis as an opponent.”

Bush has been less critical of Carter recently and a Bush adviser, Peter B. Teeley, says that although the vice president may continue to make “intermittent” references to Carter to remind voters of his Administration’s economic problems, “ultimately the campaign has to be decided on the merits of the two candidates.”

Richard B. Wirthlin, a political consultant and pollster for Reagan, thinks it is a mistake for Bush to use Carter as a target in campaigning against Dukakis.

“I don’t think you can use Carter as an attack point now,” Wirthlin said. “Carter has shown a great deal of dignity since leaving office and has given concrete meaning to what public service is. A lot of people scoffed at his going out and using a hammer and nails to help the homeless, but most Americans respond very positively to that.”