Clinton Embraced by Jackson; Carter Hails His Integrity : Convention: A platform that reflects the candidate’s centrist views is adopted. Civil rights leader says the Rainbow Coalition will mobilize behind the ticket.

Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton won a ringing endorsement from Jesse Jackson Tuesday night, as the black leader whose earlier ambivalence had threatened to sap a critical source of Democratic strength told the party’s standard-bearer: “Be comforted that you do not stand alone.”

Clinton, whose candidacy was almost destroyed early in the Democratic race by questions about his personal conduct, also received a strong testament to his character from former President Jimmy Carter, who called him “a man of honesty and integrity.”

And, in the second day of the Democrats’ quadrennial gathering, a pacific convention adopted a platform that reflects Clinton’s centrist views.

Taken together, Jackson’s long-hoped-for embrace, the adoption of a moderate platform without significant conflict and Carter’s testament to his character constituted a welcome measure of success for Clinton in his effort to put his personal problems behind him and move his party toward the center without alienating liberals or blacks.

The formal payoff for Clinton’s patient but persistent maneuvering will come tonight at Madison Square Garden. Then the Democrats--more unified now than at any time since 1976, despite continued sniping from former California Gov. Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr.--will officially name Clinton as their 1992 presidential nominee.

But for Clinton, who had steadfastly refused to enter into the protracted bargaining with Jackson that many Democrats believe hurt 1988 Democratic nominee Michael S. Dukakis at their convention four years ago, Jackson’s highly visible declaration of solidarity was sweet indeed.

Introduced by Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) as “America’s apostle of hope,” Jackson addressed the Arkansas governor as “President Bill Clinton” and said:

“You have survived a tough spring. It will make you stronger for the fall. With your stripes you must heal and make us better. The hopes of many depend upon your quest. Be comforted that you do not stand alone.”

Addressing Clinton’s running mate as “Vice President Al Gore,” Jackson said Gore had been tested and prepared, and was “a reasoned voice for environmental sanity.”

Jackson pleaded for racial justice and vowed that his Rainbow Coalition would mobilize working and poor people to help Clinton and Gore in “defeating George Bush in the fall.”

Repeatedly interrupted by cheering and applause, Jackson declared that politics could not be reduced to a matter of money and ambition. Democrats “must stay true to our values, or lose our way,” he said.

In the field of foreign policy, he likened the Bush Administration’s return of Haitian refugees from Cuba to Haiti in 1992 to the U.S. government’s policy in 1939--when it sent Jewish refugees who tried to land in Miami “back to Germany haunted by Hitler.”

“It was anti-Semitic and wrong in 1939 to lock the Jews out,” he declared. “It was racist and wrong in 1942 to lock the Japanese-Americans up. And it is racist and wrong in 1992 to lock the Haitians out and abandon Nelson Mandela in South Africa.”

When Jackson ended his rousing speech with the words “Keep hope alive,” the crowd took up the slogan, chanting “Keep Hope Alive, Keep Hope Alive” as the civil rights leader acknowledged the applause and made his way off the giant red, white and blue podium.

Carter--a deeply religious churchman as well as the last Democrat to win the presidency--had officially endorsed Clinton last spring, but his speech Tuesday emphasized his confidence in the Arkansas governor’s personal qualities.

“I’ve known Bill Clinton for more than 15 years as a friend and fine governor, voted by his peers as the best of them all,” Carter declared. “This year he has endured--and survived--the false and misleading political attacks on his character. He is a man of honesty and integrity.”

Declared the former President: “He is the only candidate who can unite our government, heal our nation’s wounds, face facts with courage and marshal the American people to face a difficult future with hope and confidence.”

Helpful as Carter’s words may have been, and enthusiastic as the delegates’ reaction to Jackson’s soaring rhetoric undoubtedly was, the emotional high point of the night came in a set of passionate, moving speeches by a Clinton aide, Bob Hattoy, and Elizabeth Glaser of Los Angeles, who have the AIDS virus.

Glaser, who contracted the disease through a blood transfusion 11 years ago, unknowingly passed it on to her young daughter and to her young son.

“Exactly four years ago,” Glaser told delegates, “my daughter died of AIDS. She did not survive the Reagan Administration. I am here because my son and I may not survive another four years of leaders who say they care--but do nothing.”

The Democrats, staunch defenders of gay rights and advocates of greater federal funding to fight the deadly AIDS virus, applauded loudly as Glaser and Hattoy, a Clinton adviser on environmental issues, told of their ordeals and accused Bush and former President Ronald Reagan of failing to do enough to combat the disease.

Hattoy, calling AIDS “a disease of the Reagan-Bush years,” said: “The first case was detected in 1981. But it took 40,000 deaths and seven years for Ronald Reagan to say the word ‘AIDS.’ It’s five years later, 70,000 more are dead. And George Bush doesn’t talk about AIDS, much less do anything about it.

“Eight years from now there will be 2 million cases in America. If George Bush wins again, we’re all at risk. It’s that simple. It’s that serious. It’s that terrible. I am a gay man with AIDS.”

The normally noisy, boisterous delegates fell silent and listened with rapt attention to Hattoy and Glaser, who were among the few speakers the disruptive Brown delegates listened to in silent respect.

Here and there throughout the cavernous hall, men as well as women brushed tears from their eyes as Glaser spoke. When she finished, Hattoy joined her on the podium and the delegates erupted into one of the longest and loudest ovations they have accorded to any speaker thus far.

Earlier in the day, Virginia Gov. L. Douglas Wilder, the nation’s only black governor and a former presidential candidate, endorsed Clinton and his running mate, Tennessee Sen. Al Gore.

Wilder, who earlier had raised questions about whether he might support independent Ross Perot, said: “Millions of Americans, including myself, are ready to commit time and energy to a campaign that stands for rebuilding and dealing with the most pressing needs of our land.”

Wilder’s endorsement guarantees the governor the right to address the convention Thursday, said Democratic Chairman Ronald H. Brown, who has worked assiduously with Clinton operatives to conduct a well-orchestrated campaign that would show the Clinton-Gore ticket to its best advantage and the long-divided party unified for the fall campaign.

Former Gov. Brown, who earlier said he represented “a voice of the powerless and we are going to stay that way,” continued to withhold an endorsement, although party officials held out hope he would announce his support for Clinton before the convention ends Thursday night.

By late Tuesday night, Brown sounded optimistic that he and Clinton, ultimately, could agree on some accommodation that would allow the maverick Californian to support the ticket. Brown reported that he and Clinton “have had some good conversations,” including one Tuesday night. He would not elaborate.

Brown, interviewed in CNN-TV, added that he wanted “a firm commitment” on some issues he has been pressing. “If we don’t get the basis of what can allow me to participate (on behalf of Clinton), obviously, I’m not going to participate--and make no mistake about it. But I have the expectation we’re moving to higher ground and I have no reason not to believe that all our expectations are going to be elevated.”

Brown is expected to use the time allotted for putting his name into nomination tonight to address the convention and discuss his liberal agenda, which the party earlier rejected.

But even Brown’s discordant note, while accompanied by rowdy demonstrations from his supporters, did not appear to distract significantly from a convention that has been extraordinarily harmonious by Democratic standards.

And some of his fellow Californians made it clear they resented the former governor’s refusal to support the candidate who had defeated him in the primaries. “Jerry made a real contribution to California politics, but he’s yet to make a contribution to national politics,” Rep. Julian C. Dixon (D-Los Angeles) said.

“Jerry’s got to make peace with the party. . . . If we can’t win this year, we can’t win for a long time,” Dixon said.

The convention here has seen the Democratic Party broaden its appeal by showcasing minorities and record numbers of women, but in the platform adopted Tuesday night, it turned away from the bitter ideological issues battles of the past. Without overtly rejecting its liberal traditions, it adopted positions that party strategists hope will appeal to voters occupying the broad middle ground of the political spectrum.

Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin, a Clinton rival in the primaries, said the new platform “is about creating a society that is open and welcoming to all of our citizens.”

The Democrats, long known as a party of big government, adopted a plank, for example, calling for “a revolution in government--to take power away from entrenched bureaucracies and narrow interests in Washington and put it back in the hands of ordinary people. We vow to make government more decentralized, more flexible and more accountable.”

Other planks, which some Democrats conceded could have been adopted at a Republican convention, praised free enterprise and honored business as “a noble endeavor”; called for tackling spending by putting everything, presumably including long-sacrosanct entitlement programs, on the table, and urged that America remain the world’s strongest military power.

At the same time, the party’s platform retained such traditional positions as creating jobs with a national public works investment and infrastructure program; supporting the rights of workers to organize and bargain collectively without fear of intimidation or replacement during strikes, and the right of women to choose to have an abortion.

In the biggest and most spectacular event outside the convention hall Tuesday, thousands of AIDS activists, their supporters, ordinary New Yorkers and out-of-town visitors filled Times Square for an afternoon “unity rally” designed to draw attention to the worldwide AIDS crisis.

The rally was proceeded by a march originating at Columbus Circle, about 17 blocks north of Times Square, in which more than 7,000 AIDS activists and supporters participated, chanting such slogans as “black, white, gay, straight/AIDS does not discriminate” and “off of the sidewalks and into the streets, fight AIDS now.”

Former President Carter, who characterized his convention appearance here as proof of his rehabilitation into “a more or less respected party figure,” told reporters the Democrats have come full circle since 1976 when he was elected.

He said the Democrats have returned to a moderate position since 1980, when he won their nomination for reelection but Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts led a liberal revolt that split the party and moved it to the left of most of its traditional constituents.

Carter, who places much of the blame for his loss to Reagan on that split, said that although the party has pardoned him for “the unforgivable sin of losing” in 1980, he has no plans for a major role in the Clinton campaign.

In his convention speech, Carter, who previously had been restrained in any criticism of Bush, severely criticized the foreign policies of both Bush and Reagan. While the world cries out for peaceful resolution of conflict, he declared, “our country is seen as more warlike than peace-loving.”

“We celebrated a great victory over tiny Grenada, and later invaded Panama, where hundreds of our friends were killed,” he said. “We promoted and financed the Contra war that caused 35,000 casualties in Nicaragua.

“There are even second thoughts about the Gulf War, where Saddam Hussein still reigns supreme in Iraq, Kuwait is no closer to democracy and the Kurds and other refugees endure terrible hardship,” Carter said.

He also criticized the Bush Administration for financing the Iraqi military before its invasion of Kuwait and said that in none of the conflicts he mentioned were peaceful negotiations used to avoid conflict.

Times staff writers William J. Eaton, Sam Fulwood III, David Lauter, Michael Ross, George Skelton and Tracy Wilkinson contributed to this story.

‘92 DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION: A Party in Transition

Something old and something new, something borrowed--and something for everyone. That variation on the old wedding rhyme fairly sums up the 1992 Democratic Plaform approved by the party’s convention Tuesday night. The new elements reflect the effort by standard bearer Bill Clinton to shift the party to what he perceives to be the nation’s ideological center. But there is plenty that is old--or at least familiar--as the party seeks to reassure and reconcile its traditional liberal constituencies.

Excerpts: Platform’s more moderate notions:

“We call for a revolution in government--to take power away from entrenched bureaucracies and narrow interests in Washington and put it back in the hands of ordinary people. We vow to make government more decentralized, more flexible and more accountable...

“We honor business as a noble endeavor and vow to create a far better climate for firms and independent contractors of all sizes.... We believe in free enterprise and the power of market forces.

“We must also tackle spending by putting everything on the table; eliminate non-productive programs...cut federal administrative costs...limit increases in the present budget to the rate of growth in the average American’s paycheck.

“America is the world’s strongest military power and we must remain so....The United States must be prepared to use military force decisively when necessary to defend our vital interests.”

Excerpts: More traditional positions:

“We will create jobs by investing significant resources to put people back to work...A national public works investment and infrastructure program will provide jobs and strengthen our cities, suburbs, rural communities and country.

“We will honor the work ethic...by supporting the right of workers to organize and bargain collectively without fear of intimidation or permanent replacement during labor disputes.

“Democrats will continue to lead the fight to ensure that no Americans suffer discrimination.... We support the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment; affirmative action; stronger protection of voting rights for racial and ethnic minorities...

“Democrats stand behind the right of every woman to choose, consistent with Roe v. Wade (and) regardless of ability to pay, and support a national law to protect that right. It is a fundamental constitutional liberty that individual Americans--not government--can best take responsibility for making the most difficult and intensely personal decisions regarding reproduction.”