European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 15, 1980, Darmstadt, Hesse Poge 12 the stars and stripes monday. September 15, 1980 Tom Wicker Carter inviting belief he s afraid to debate looking for our Good Ole by who came to the by City four years president Carter and his advisers say he loses less by staying out of the first debate than he would by agreeing to John Anderson s participation in it. Maybe so and As Richard Nixon in his inimitable style put it they arc a Tough Bunch those Georgia boys. They May play softball Down in Plains but they play hardball in the coun try they scr mainly do but on the debate Issue somebody on the Carter team looks guilty of a wild Pilch or maybe it s More of a passed Ball. The president had Good reason to try to Man Euver Anderson out of the game by once the league of women Vot ers invited him in. It s hard to see How car Ter will be hurl less by an empty chair than by a vigorous debate performance. Of course the Georgia boys May still be bluffing in Hopes that the league will column Sand comments change its mind. Bui ils officers appear to be standing like a Slonic Wall and if Carter now changes his mind and agrees to debate on Cpl. 21. He will Only underline his hard Avon reputation for indecision ineptitude and Speed on the backtrack. Taking him at his word Rhal he won t give in the result will be a two Man debate in which John Anderson will have the sole Opportunity before an audience of millions even if fewer millions than might Walch if Carter look pan to present himself As the alternative to Ronald Reagan the Candi Date who scorns the responsibility of Rea Gan s tax cutting scheme who disputes the necessity for a heightened arms race and who questions the Republican candidate s qualifications for the nation s highest office. That can Only build up Anderson in precisely the Way Carter least needs As a real alternative to Reagan since every poll shows that the Independent candidate s major Handicap is the widespread belief that he cannot win. Whatever lessens that belief Broadens Anderson s support hence threatens Carter the More. The president s decision to Boycott the first debate thus seems to hand Anderson a Golden Opportunity and for to Good reason because As a participant himself the presi Dan a Veteran of the 1976 debates after nil might not Only be Able to seize the initiative against Reagan but also take a Case against Anderson As an opportunistic spoiler. That would be hardball and what better Chance will Carter have by taking the other approach he makes himself look needlessly arrogant i m president and i Don t have to play except by my own rules and presumptuous the people have no need to hear anybody but us party Nomi nees. And while All the candidates have played the debate game to enhance their own political interests Carter appears by this decision in contrast to Reagan and Anderson to have done so with open contempt for the wishes of the Public end for the supposed educational value of Tele Vised presidential debates. By ducking debate with Andersen hence also with Reagan at least on sept. 21 Carter also lends credence to the charge that he is unable to defend his own record. He has already invited thai charge by his Basic Campaign strategy raising fears about Reagan rather than boldly asserting that one Good term deserves another. After Carter s Rose Garden Campaign against sen. Edward Kennedy his refusal to enter the first debate May suggest to Many voters a Lack of courage and Confidence in his own performance. No doubt Carter and his Campaign team have thought of All that and made their decision a byway for reasons Good and sufficient to them and maybe such risky judgments arc the reason Why Carter is president and his critics Aren t. He should not go unchallenged nevertheless on two extraordinary comments about the Ander son candidacy i Sec Anderson As primarily a creation of the politics these Days who in to and would Carter like to explain what he was in 1976? what did he spend a year organizing Iowa for ils handful of democratic delegates no. For the flood of Media Alle lion he knew would descend on the Winner of the car s first comes. La did he was the beneficiary and he inight be fairly called the first real Media Percsi Donl though obviously he won t be inc last now Hal Media politics has so nearly supplanted parly politics he and his wife handpicked his vice presidential let us mercifully pass Over the question who handpicked Waller Mondale in 1976, since the answer is w cell known. Bui this comment comes from a pc Sidon whose wife is by All evidence one of his adm Nistra lion s most powerful policy voices though irid in appointed and from a president whose wife Mother sons and brother All have been sent to acl some times dubiously As diplomatic representatives of the United states though none have been Irain cd or employed for Hal Pur pose. Living in such a Glass House even a presi Donl perhaps particularly a pics Cal should he silage to throw Campaign stones. In new York Tii Tiei John Roche Reagan fakes commitments seriously poor Ronald Reagan is really in trouble one billion Mainland chinese will not Vole for him. Nor will the Friendly neighbourhood i Flics who backed our be trayal in Indochina and gave us inc current asian Auschwitz. Nor i gather will the leaders of Media opinion who never believed he would be nominated in the first place. Of course inc end of August and begin Ning of arc always the silly sea son. Americans sensibly enough do not focus hard on the presidential election until about oct. I so the news Hole in the papers and on to has to be filled with junk. I would include the Billy Carter episode in this category. Maybe because i served in inc air Force with Many like him i read Billy As a canny Ole Rascal from the Piney Woods rolling libyan drunks nol a political operator. Back to Ronnie and his allegedly Appal Ling errors. At the Momcil i have a Roose veni Slicker left Over from 1940 on my car bul when Reagan observed to the veterans of foreign wars that our commitment in Vietnam was a Noble cause he nearly won a convert. Part of the problem Wilh justifying the War was ils idealistic charac Ter. Like most human beings americans Don l like to fight for abstraction. In 1965 in England i was stunned at a dinner parly when the general consensus of those present All socialists was expressed in a nutshell by an old Friend come on John let the doggies fight it to fight Row a him 115111 ii jul. 1u kill for the Elf determination of 20 million South vice names and Khmer was indeed a Noble cause As about six million vices and khmers would testify if they could. But they have been murdered. I suppose we might have saved a lol of Money and anguish if we had left them to inc Bui chars in the Early 1960s, but those who shared Jack Kennedy s Liberal Militancy considered thai course to use an ancestral word dishonourable. They were right. Well Wilh one phrase Reagan has lost the support of the Mcgovern los who were already prepared to vote against him on 14 other grounds. Whal about the billion chinese As has been noted Here Over the years i have looked on the Nixon Kissinger breakthrough to peking As one of the great charades of inc 1970s. Chou in Lai could have managed a breakthrough any time he wished All ii look was an airmail ice scr Send via Pakistan or Romania the two channels of preliminary conversation. Insl cad Prince Henry inc navigator parachuted into China in secrecy and by the Lime the dust scaled Nixon had decided on personal Insp Cimon inc Wall was Garcal the unsentimental chinese communists needed us. The question is who needs them but instead of asking what peking has done for us lately. Carter fell Over backwards to do recognize the Republic of China on Tai wan. Whether you Call it the Republic of China inc khanate of Taiwan or the grand duchy of Formosa there is an extremely successful political and economic Clity on that Island. Their Itule eccentricity that they Are the government of China need not be taken seriously. On the other hand it is and was squalid to treat the taiwanese As lepers and Reagan won t lose Voles for saying so. When our Mutual defense treaty with Taiwan was ended even Ted Kennedy observed a communist attack would Lead to american response. Reagan merely Reite rated this View and need not apologize. There arc after All a number of Ameri cans particularly in the jewish Community who Are looking for a president who takes commitments seriously. Our behaviour to Ward Taiwan is hardly encouraging a they watch the United slates sit idly by at the . As Israel sizzles on the Roli Sicrie. One piece of advice to Reagan avoid the Bible be Alcris. Jimmy Carter a born again John Elmer Gantry Andeson thrice tried to make the . Into a theocracy i suspect most of us Are put o t by Public piety thus i urge Reagan to become a to it Christian As Jesus put it when thou Pray St enter Inlo thy closet and when thou Hast shut the door Pray to thy a 1
