Correspondents' Correspondence Carter's Seesaw
SCHIEFFER, BOB
Carter Seesaw Washington—Unexpected triumph when all seemed to be going wrong, surprise defeat when things seemed to be going right. Yet oddly enough it is adding up to a year that will close on a...
...Camp David changed all that...
...In the case of the Middle East, negotiations have gotten to the point where agreement has been reached on many significant issues...
...The ratification of salt will be one of the most controversial issues to come before the Senate, and it will take time to resolve...
...It is also acknowledged, though, that the longer both these negotiations continue, the harder it will be to bring them to a successful conclusion...
...Carter and his people don't consider the effort wasted, not by any means, since they believe peace is closer than ever before...
...Nor are very many people in the Administration still willing to predict that Egypt and Israel will come to terms before the new year...
...The same can be said on the Middle East...
...Every day there is no salt agreement to consider will increase the pressure once the treaty is ready for debate...
...As one observer put it, the nice thing about successes of this sort is that you really don't need many of them...
...concurrently Congress came to a close, and he could count a victory or two on Capitol Hill...
...But the entire process could come un-glued if key remaining differences are not settled soon...
...And a note that could produce more of the same kinds of emotional ups and downs in 1979...
...Some of the euphoria was bound to fade, but it has virtually evaporated...
...Among other things, the negotiations have consumed an enormous amount of the Administration's energy and attention...
...So not only has the talk here about celebrating a socko ending subsided, but many people seem impatient to get this year over in the hope of moving things along at the start of the next one.—Bob Schieffer...
...The official line is that there is no real deadline for salt, and there is a consensus that eventually something will be worked out...
...He had slipped badly in the polls, he hadn't had much luck with Congress, and there was even speculation that perhaps Jimmy Carter himself was having second thoughts about whether he really wanted to be President...
...Six months ago, there were some people around who wouldn't have given much for President Carter's chances of winning renomination in 1980, let alone re-election...
...People now began talking about how maybe 1978 would have a socko ending after all...
...Yet every day that the negotiations drag on, there is less time for the President to devote to other problems that are closing in?especially problems of the economy...
...It looked as if there would be a peace treaty in the Middle East before Christmas, a salt treaty before the end of the year, and Carter already had an energy bill of sorts that he could point to...
...In fact, there is no longer much hope that an arms agreement with the Soviets can be concluded this year...
...Suddenly Carter shot up in the polls...
...Yet oddly enough it is adding up to a year that will close on a rather blah note for the Carter White House...
Vol. 61 • December 1978 • No. 25
