Correspondents' Correspondence

...The American Federation of Govern?ment Employees risked antagonizing the Ford Administration (and violating the Hatch Act) by endors?ing and demonstrating for the Dem?ocratic candidate...

...The stance of the mass media, though, has revealed the predominantly radical-Socialist leanings of the Italian molders of public opinion...

...Once the results were in, the Demo?crat's victory was described as much skimpier than it actually was...

...True, despite its massive get-out-the-vote effort that may have brought Carter victory, it backed the man half-heartedly-the other half of its heart still belonging to the familiar and faithful Hubert Humphrey...

...The official detachment is not merely a diplomatic facade: It reflects uncertainties similar to those experienced by American voters...

...Finally, they concluded that straight-forward conservative Ford was a better choice than ambiguous, fundamentally reactionary and bigoted Carter...

...Since the boundaries of this marriage of convenience were fairly well understood by both sides, there should have been no reason for disillusionment...

...Labor is an example...

...Most of Carter's supporters still want to believe in him...

...Yet Carter has man?aged the difficult task of raising fur?ther doubts in an already dubious partner...

...The incumbents who won did so in spite of, not because of, the President-elect...

...Nevertheless, when push came to shove it was felt a Carter Administration would, at the minimum, bring less hostile appointments to the Supreme Court and National Labor Relations Board...

...When he made it clear that his stand was basically in tune with that of the present Administration on this particular issue, Italian journalists be?came increasingly critical of him...

...Their doubts in?creased when the President-elect an?nounced a 6.5 per cent unemploy?ment rate and a 6 per cent economic growth rate as targets for the first year of his Administration...

...In the Vietnam-Watergate period, the legislators saw their roles as "upholding and defending the nation...

...Unease About Carter WASHINGTON-Few who supported him here express their sentiments publicly, but behind closed doors one encounters an uneasiness about Jimmy Carter...

...At the same time, persistent critics of "Watergate America" seemed to forget that Ford had constantly supported Rich?ard Nixon during the entire crisis, and then actually pardoned him...

...Italian newspapers and magazines bare?ly sketched such important features as the impressive size of Carter's majority, or the enormous power wielded by the incumbent...

...But as they pon?der the much-touted governmental reorganization, they wonder if theirs will turn out to a Pyrrhic victory...

...Blacks were pleased with the way Carter handled the integra?tion of his church in Plains, Georgia,' Farmer says...

...This allowed the Con?gress to challenge??rather than meekly accept??the President's as?sumptions on domestic and foreign policy...

...In postelection press conferences, he has himself repeatedly stressed his independence from those who catapulted him to power, prompt?ing veteran labor reporter John Herling to comment that "thus far there seems to be no sense in the Carter circle of what went into his victory...

...Interestingly, by and large the Communist press was more cautious and less strident than other Center-Left publications...

...The negative impression thus projected, coupled with the American tragedies and follies of the 1963-74 period, has affected public opinion...

...The bulk of the PCI support comes from the workers who have discovered the advantages of super?markets, household appliances and superhighways too recently to worry about the dangers of a consumer society...

...Re?cent examples demonstrate how the bias operates...

...But unless Carter comes up with broad, eco?nomic programs to benefit blacks, they may take a walk from the Dem?ocratic party in the next election...

...It was the old attitude of the European Left: A conservative is preferable to a social democrat...

...Thundering from his Rome penthouse Alberto Moravia will inveigh against America, the exporter of consumerism, as did the late poet, writer and movie director Pier Paolo Pasolini in his nostalgia for the good old days of rustic unpolluted poverty...

...Some leading Italian papers even soft-pedaled the fact that Carter had the support of the blacks and the labor unions...

...No final judgments are being made...

...that is partly responsible for a decline of American prestige in Italy-as the Rome daily Tempo has argued...

...According to a recent survey by the United States Information Agency, America's image has de?teriorated more seriously here than in any other Western European na?tion...

...If President-elect Carter's future constituents still seem unclear about his positions on a number of important issues, this is doubly true in Italy where the former Governor is a complete unknown...

...And of all the Italian Leftist papers, only the Communist Paese Sera backed Car?ter in an editorial, quoting a pas?sage of the New York Times endorsement...

...In the closing days of the campaign the biased coverage empha?sized Ford's surge and the simultaneous erosion of Carter's margin...

...The Governor ran against Washington during the campaign...

...Liberals, who were heartened by Carter's campaign pledge to make the issue of jobs his "number one priority," became skeptical during the Democratic convention when his spokesmen sought to water down the full-employment plank in the party platform...

...As for the mood among minority groups, James Farmer, founder of the Congress of Racial Equality, describes it as "popsemistic"-halfway between optimistic and pessimistic...

...With Executive power in a shambles, Congress honed its own institutions, strengthening com?mittees and creating new ones such as the House and Senate budget committees...

...Within 48 hours (November 10 and 12) two slanted documentaries of the Rosenberg trial and the Viola Liuzzo murder in Mississippi were televised by the same channel, and on November 12 once reliable and objective Corriere Delia Sera wrote that the Rosenbergs had been killed because they were "Jewish, pacifist and different...

...Having won a larger share of the television camera's time, Congressmen??according to their staff members??are reluctant and apprehensive at the thought of having to cede some of it...

...While attitudes here have changed significantly, it would be a mistake to blindly accept the survey's findings...

...Despite the disillusionment, many Italians (especially in the South, where nearly everybody seems to have at least one relative in Brooklyn) are still much im?pressed by America's power, wealth and way of life...

...Even if one believes the President-elect is simply being diplomatic, the dis?turbing thought obtrudes that Car?ter may be engaged in a delicate balancing act that could alienate al?most everyone.-BONNIE POTTER Italy Views the Election ROME-Italian officials have remained totally noncommittal in their reaction to the American Presidential campaign...

...Most industrial workers, however, vote Communist not out of rejection of neo-capitalism but out of dissatisfaction over their very limited ability to enjoy what capitalism can offer.-SILVO F. SENIGALLIA...

...Congressmen and government bureaucrats have their own uncertainties about Carter...

...His aides turned off many labor organizers during the cam?paign with their stiff-armed tactics...

...This is in marked contrast with past elections, when visible and even glaring preference was expressed for the Democratic candidates, who were seen as more Europe-oriented than their Asia-first Republican opponents...

...The doubts turned to downright dis?comfort when his newly designated director of the Office of Manage?ment and Budget, Bert Lance, said he didn't think even these conserva?tive goals could be reached...

...It would be fallaci?ous, for example, to draw a close connection between anti-American?ism (endemic among West Euro?pean intellectuals) and the rise of the Communist vote...

...With luck, there could even be passage of such legislative priori?ties as a full employment bill and national health insurance...

...Government bureaucrats, meanwhile, fear for their future...

...Some newspapers and the Leftist Second Channel of the state-owned television network initially attempted to depict Carter as more willing than President Ford to accept a government role for the Italian Communist party (PCI...

...Besides distorting news of the election, the Italian mass media, including state-owned radio and tele?vision networks, have been providing a onesided view of the U.S...

...Further, Congress has grown more assertive during the Nixon-Ford years...

...But just when he seems to have won back their confidence, the Governor does something baffling like appearing on TV with his "good friends" Henry Kissinger and Arthur Burns...

...They owe him no debts now, but also feel no close relationship...

...In fact, it partly explains Premier Giulio Andreotti's trip to the United States last week...

...The majority of the Italian people are reported convinced their country no longer shares mutual interests with the United States...