Media

...There was a great rustling and whispering and pointing when the heroes of the National Press arrived, winding through the crowd behind a banner with a strange device: CARTER PRESS FOLLOW ME...

...We had a good angle on the tops of the heads of the local and national Democrats who were shortly to appear before us, or rather beneath us...

...No comment) The grew - up - on - a - FARM - worked - hard - all - my - LIFE issue...

...Though there were to be visible at this gathering, before it was done, two United States Senators, a candidate for Congress, a candidate for governor, a mayor, a passel of other political figures, and a candidate who six weeks later was to be elected president of the United States, it was nevertheless quite clear that the visitor who gave the crowd a shock of recognition and of awe was Sam Donaldson of the ABC television network...

...That's why they must make those awkward three-day forays out into the provinces to try to discern the Mood of Peoria...

...The then-Senator Vance Hartke, a former mayor of Evansville, cried out from the platform: "I want to say to you, Jimmy Carter: the people of Evansville love you...

...Silence) The federal - government - will - have - a - balanced - budget - by - the - end - of - my - term - as - president - YOU - CAN - DEPEND - ON - IT issue...

...He's a short fella, ain't he...

...The unemploymentrolls - have - increased - under - Nixon - Ford issue...

...Nevertheless there come those Tuesdays of Surprise, those double reversals of public attitude...

...not - easy - for - a - complete - outsider - to - defeat - an - incumbent issue...

...Row 14 feels like being quiet) The Vietnam - Watergate - CIA - spiritual - damage...

...The sandwiches were no good and the candidate was short...

...The public heart has its reasons that the media know not of...

...Small guy...

...The audience in the upper seats in Evansville was sparse enough to allow easy conversation and close enough to enable one to hear one's neighbors...

...American - people - GOOD...

...As the time for the meeting drew near the orchestra wafted up over the aroma of fried chicken and old tennis shoes the sweet saxophony sound of "Georgia on My Mind...

...But the two men sitting directly behind us ate their fried chicken in silence through remarks of leading Democrats from the city, the state, and the nation...

...want - nothing - for - ourselves...

...We ate fried chicken and sandwiches—if two slices of white bread with nothing between them but oleomargarlne can be called a sandwich— while a small dance band played "Back Home Again in Indiana" and "Hello, Dolly...

...The two citizens munched silently through the ranging remarks of Senator Birch Bayh and continued non-committally chewing when he introduced candidate Carter himself...

...the woman in Brooks Hays's story who said, "Oh, no, I never vote, it just encourages them...

...Row fourteen finally had a comment...

...During this year's media searchings of this tricky public, I was reminded of an instructive experience I had along that line in the last presidential year...

...Happily the mood in the other towns remains a little elusive...

...No word from Row 14) The bloated - mess - in - Washington - thirteen - different - agencies - deal - with - drug - abuse - the - government - and - the - American - people - must - start - workin' - TOGETHER - for a change isue...

...It was late September of 1976...

...American - people - LOVE - OUR - COUNTRY issue...

...That was the sum total of political observation, so far as I heard it, in Evansville...

...Playing that song involved a certain confusion of Georgias, to be sure, but as the theme song of the Harlem Globetrotters, "Sweet Georgia Brown" is linked to the vital center of this state, basketball...

...The members of the Washington press corps, an insulated elite of above average height, do their center jumps only with each other, and lose contact with the heartland...

...play - at - same - golf - courses...

...National commentary should pay attention to these subtle differences from province to province...

...Carter, arising to speak, explained that he was on his way back to Plains from a good meeting in Portland...

...The slow - robbery - by - inflation issue...

...The I - owe - the - special - interests - NOTHING...

...a seated silence in Section C) When the fervent political articulation under the backboard was over and the meeting adjourned, candidate Carter descended to floor level to shake hands with the citizens crowding around the free throw line...

...WILLIAM LEE MILLER 6' 1...

...Paul Duke of PBS's Washington Week in Review, and other Washington media people, also sometimes use the phrase "this town" in that slightly precious mock-modest way...

...American people in Section C love their country without a word) The not - an - easy - campaign...

...I - owe - the - people -EVERYTHING issue...

...One is grateful even for the spectacularly idiosyncratic: The voter in 1948 who wanted Dewey because it would be pleasant to have a president with a moustache, the Baptist West Virginia voter William V. Shannon discovered in the 1960 primary who opposed John F. Kennedy on religious grounds (the Kennedys he knew were Methodists...

...Perhaps they do it more often in a presidential election year...

...The only sound is the rustling of lunch bags) The Washington - insiders - go - to - the - same - clubs...

...Georgia on My Mind" had not until that moment been played in my hearing, through many visits to Indiana by members of the Carter family...

...Section C maintains silence together) The Gerry - Ford - is - a - true - leader - of - the - party - of - Harding - Hoover - and - Nixon issue...

...Neither Carter nor these two men from Evansville showed any response to this dubious confession of municipal affection...

...don't - go - into - the - HOMES - to - see - a - family - in - TROUBLE...

...Well, I'm telling you the mood of Evansville, at least in Section C, Rows 13 and 14...

...When a junior high school band or other musical aggregation had found it necessary to greet a visiting Georgian with a tune from its repertoire that had the word "Georgia" in the title, the choice had always been, so far as my knowledge extends and so far as I could recognize what they were playing, "Sweet Georgia Brown...

...I tell it now partly as an illustration of the point, and partly for nostalgia and reminder...

...A standing ovation on the floor...

...Astute political commentators like David Broder of the Washington Post and Hedrick Smith of the New York Times, who are taller than the president, failed to discern this sleeper among the issues on the public mind...

...The mood in this town last week .. ," he will write, and then he will tell, actually, the "mood" in a tiny uppercrust of the world's most powerful people...

...We bought box lunches and took our places not with the main body of the crowd in the folding chairs on the floor but in the permanent seats above it—in Section C, which afforded a good view of the speaker's platform located on the free throw line at the Southeast basket...

...the Oregon citizen who remarked angrily, when the candidate favoring daylight saving time said it would give "one more hour of daylight...

...My grass is brown already...

...One more hour of daylight...

...The media people ask questions at factory gates, front doors, caucuses and now even at polling places, while the feel of the lever is still hot in the voting hand...

...Media THE MOOD IN SECTION C THE PUBLIC HEART HAS ITS REASONS FOR THREE DECADES now James Reston of the New York Times has referred to the most powerful capital city in the history of mankind with the Thornton Wilder-esque phrase "this town...

...We arrived early and discovered on the walls of that stadium large pictures of Evansville basketball teams of years gone by: big warriors in their undershirts looking somberly at the camera, standing uncomfortably in rows with basketballs by their sides...

...Richard Reeves was later to complain about the number of 20 June 1980: 371 times he had that tune inflicted upon him during his travels as a political correspondent in 1976, but Indiana must be distinguished on that point from other states...

...A friend and I went to hear candidate Carter in the Roberts Memorial Stadium in Evansville, Indiana...

...In such a year their sense of distance from, and their professional curiosity about, the mood out there in those quaint, halfforgotten other towns, where the voters live, work, ignore politics, denounce Washington, bring their celebrated supermarket baskets to the celebrated check-out counters, and hold their perversely volatile opinions, of necessity increases...

...Yeah...

...He then sped through his issues in a rousing rapid fire talk, without, however, rousing Section C. The goin' - home - to - see - my - wife - and - my - little - girl - on - our - FARM issue...

...American - people - HURT...

...don't - know - what - a - FARMER - feels - like issue...