European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - January 20, 1981, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 12 the stars and stripes James Reston january 1981 leaving with arriving enthusiastically the changing of the guard in Washington is much More than a switch of Power and for those going put and those coming it is a deeply moving per Sonal for while it is popular to blame Washington for All our anxieties these it has a kind of magical attraction for those who wish to serve their it May tear up their private lives when they come yet most of them hate to for despite All their regrets and disappointments they Usu ally remember their work successful or As one of the most important Chap ters of their this is not a sentimental Point about the people at the top in except maybe for Jimmy the guess Here is that he will Wake in the night for the rest of his wondering what went wrong and Why he was he will have no Finan Cial problems the Job of exp resident is the surest hedge against inflation in America he will have like Rich Ard except the work he loved and Carters Cabinet and his White House staff will disappear from Here in a few and will probably have nothing to worry about except their income its an amusing Paradox in this country that the big corporations rail against the leaders of the democratic party in Congress and the then hire them at preposterous Sal Aries when the democrats Are whats particularly interesting in this Case is that so Many prominent members of the Defeated Carter administration cant go Home or have been Here so Long in exciting jobs that they dont want to go and in Many cases dont really know where Home their children Are grown and their friends of Middle age Are their political careers Are Secretary of state Muskie and Secretary of defense for will not go Back to Maine or but will Settle Here in some useful and lucrative jobs on the fringe of the changing of the guard in washing ton is not merely changing it is changing changing leaving old changing relationships Between husband and wife and taking on new abandoning old cliches and perhaps the hardest of this for men coming in and men going is for their they Are the while the old Man is posing for his picture on arrival or who have to get ready for the console the give the fare Well or welcoming parties for the staff in just the right pretty and smiling and then clean up the this is a hard town on politics is More dangerous than booze or being excessively vulnerable to the subject is beyond and yet no great novelist or biographer has captured the glories and contributions the women of this town have made to the history of the there is another aspect of this transition from Carter to Reagan that has scarcely been this is the role of the Many Young people in their 20s and Early 30s who were recruited by Jack Hamilton Jody Powell and others to serve at the lower political Levels of the car Ter some of them to put the Point less than but Many of them were very Good and these Are the people who Are the real losers of the departing crowd Here unrecognized and out of it is not As hard on them because they Are younger than the Defeated democratic senators such As George Frank Church and Birch who were Defeated in Middle just when they expected to the expressed in the columns and on those the Are in no represent no the of the and or the United slates enjoy the advantages of seniority after their Long years in the for the work in Washington is very Spe Cial for those who have had even a Small part in serving the no amount of work or Money quite equals no other City is so frustrating or paradoxically so Al Haig has achieved More in his 38 years As a military Man than anybody else except maybe Dwight Eisenhower or George he has had a triple heart bypass and does not know How Long he can he is not a Rich yet he has Given up the Security of a million private Job to accept his appointment As Secretary of Why As with so Many others who Are coming Here with or Leav ing Here with Washington has All the attractions of a love with All the potential dangers and glories that this is Why the Reagan people Are com ing in with such and the Carter people Are leaving with such some the big shots going through the revolving but it is their women who have to suffer their fleeting successes and console their c times Tom Wicker Carter lacked a Clear sense of priorities president Carters Farewell address became him he offered Best wishes to the Man who Defeated re minded the nation of its enduring values and made a modest final Appeal for the goals that had most engaged toward two of these preservation of the environment and Protection of human rights Carter achieved his disputed and sometimes derided human rights in began the task of re storing decency and generosity to a world approach that had come to rest too heavily and ineffectively on Money and military and economic Power must have their due part in american but con Cern for human so far from being soft and is the most effective expression of a nation conceived in Liberty and dedicated to the proposition that All men Are created and that propose in its profound Appeal to men and women represents the single greatest strength of the United states As Long As american deeds give it Carters achievement in human rights was incomplete but and the same might be said of his failure to achieve a third goal further nuclear arms con he was thwarted by the soviet unions blundering invasion of Afghanistan by a determined but shortsighted opposition in this and by his own mismanage ment in first overreaching for an agreement More extensive than the soviets were prepared to consider and later in stumbling Over the Issue of soviet combat troops in still even an a ratified Salt ii rep resents a significant soviet american agreement on the most important Issue be tween them it offers a foundation on which to build further agreement and despite the More belligerent Reagan ites bluster May act As a de Facto restraint on the Mili tary behaviour of both from lists of achieve ments and Carters impending re turn to Plains impels the question Why such a disciplined and intelligent taking office with so much Good will and represent ing a majority party that controlled both houses of could achieve what the american people obviously judged to be so Little Here is a tentative gingerly offered Carters failure to manage the Economy effectively i from his Lack of a definite economic attitude he could have no real economic his efforts were marked from the first by vacillation and reversal it was never Clear whether inflation or growth or unemployment was his main concern or would be next week or next month and Tough words were Seldom followed by Strong or even consistent beyond this vacuum at the Center of his economic Carter had a More general failing an inability to persuade the american he persisted in the Engi neers approach of devising comprehensive programs on this subject or but repeatedly failed to mobilize Public opinion in their this failure was for Lack of speech making and meetings and other Public relations Carter unable to stimulate and sus Tain genuine commitment to his causes perhaps because the Public did not sense in him the political skills and understanding that could have built its Confidence and engaged its that Public instinct was if my judgment is that Jimm Carters Central failure was for All his gifts and he never established a politically coherent no doubt this was owing partially to Carters inexperience in and partially to his unwilling Ness to move outside a tight and reassuring Southern Circle but i to his apparent Lack of a Clear and orderly sense of possibilities and the necessity for working closely with for was not grasped until too late and Here Carters personal aloofness and sometimes hardened tactics did not the result was repeated re sapping Public or take some of Carters achievements the Panama canal beginning an Energy rescuing social Security at the Cost of higher even Camp there Are few votes in any of them quite the such even backbreaking issues were challenged not always necessarily before effective working relations with smaller but More popular successes and a record of practical accomplishment had Given Carter sufficient Public Confidence and political instead of building momentum toward his major he attacked them head that May have been bold but it was not a word in its Best describes More than the Art of winning elections and defines what a president must above