Transcripts

text | pdf |

---

piece of the action. It's a little bit like former Senator Ralph Yarborough of my State of Texas used to say, we want to put the jam on the lower shelf where the little man can reach it. We want wage earners to have a chance to become capitalists themselves, to own a home, send their children to college, and to enjoy the fruits of their labor in a dignified retirement.

And it's all a matter of faith. 35 years ago, there were two men who together viewed the first blinding flash of light that accompanied the world's first nuclear explosion. They experienced entirely different reactions. A physicist said, I'm sure that on Doom's Day, in the last millisecond, the last man on Earth will see what we've just seen.

But William Laurence of The New York Times said he felt as though he had been present at the dawn of creation when God had said, let there be light. To say that science has become our god, as some have said, is to forget that science is of God, who created the physical laws of the universe in the first place, who put the electricity in the storm cloud, who locked the power of the sun itself in the tiniest of atoms.

It's he who determines at each step of the way when humankind is ready to have revealed to us yet another of the secrets of his otherwise inscrutable universe. Dare we then to believe that he has divined in our increasing awareness a capacity to apply his corollary moral laws of individual and social behavior in such a way as to make of the atom man's servant and not his destroyer.

Those who met in Detroit last month preached the doctrine of fear. Let them have that doctrine of fear. And let us, the hereditors of Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson and Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman, of John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson and Jimmy Carter assume our rightful role as the disciples of hope and the apostles of the dawn.

Let us go forth from this place, united in spirit, lifted up in hope, determined to achieve a victory in November and then to make the future better for the sons and daughters of the age to come.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: The majority leader of the House of Representatives, Jim Wright of Texas. He is from Fort Worth, Texas. And his is one of the major speeches of the evening leading up to the main event when the vice president and the president will speak to this convention.

SANDY UNGAR: Linda, I think that Jim Wright has a tough race for reelection himself this year. Though he's majority leader and has a great deal of seniority, he faces a very difficult reelection race in Fort Worth this year.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: He has a little bit of a--

SPEAKER 1: Continuing live coverage of the Democratic National Convention in New York is coming to you on the news and information service of Minnesota Public Radio. This is KSJN, Minneapolis, St. Paul, two minutes before 8:00. Local coverage of the Democratic National Convention is made possible with a grant from the Minneapolis Star. Now back to New York.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: --passing messages to President Sadat of Egypt, that kind of thing. And now that's surfaced. It's been in the papers. And while there's not any strong agreement that he's done anything that might be actionable--

SANDY UNGAR: Yeah, there have been newspaper reports about this.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: --he is having a little bit of a political problem with it. The governor of Oklahoma, George Nigh, who will introduce Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia, the majority leader of the Senate, let's go down and listen to Governor Nigh.

GEORGE NIGH: --introduce to the convention another of our country's outstanding legislative leaders. I'm a little tempted tonight, I must admit, to let my state pride follow along in the singing of that state song that my delegation is now doing and get carried away and sing as governor of Oklahoma introducing a United States senator from West Virginia.

I'm tempted to say, West Virginia Almost Heaven. Oklahoma truly is. Some folks consider being elected to public office as the highest goal in life. May I suggest to you that it is performance in public life that is the test of a public servant.

No one said it better than that great Democratic leader Adlai Stevenson, who said, winning the election--

LINDA WERTHEIMER: We will be back for the majority leader's speech. But right now, we're going to go down to the floor where Cokie Roberts is talking to the governor of Arkansas, Governor Bill Clinton, about the campaign that will be run in the South this year. Cokie Roberts.

COKIE ROBERTS: Here's Governor Clinton. Now that the nomination is over and Carter has it, you've been working for him all along and you're governor of a Southern state, what do you think his chances are going to be in the South this time around?

BILL CLINTON: Well, he'll have more trouble in the South this time than the last time for two reasons. First of all, of course he's in and we're in this very difficult time economically with our energy problems and people are suffering. And secondly, Governor Reagan has always had more native appeal in the South than did President Ford.

But I believe he'll still do well in the South. And I think that while he might lose a couple of states, he didn't lose last time. He'll probably pick up a few in the Northeast and Midwest and balance that out. We have a lot of work to do.

As I said tonight in my speech, I think that the most disturbing thing to me is that while I had hoped this convention would be an opportunity for the Democrats to speak to the country about their ideas, their vision for the future, our analysis of our present problems, this has very low ratings on television, perhaps on radio, too.

And a lot of people are just tuned out and turned off. And so what we have to do tonight is to leave here determined to reach those people. And if we can do it, then the president can be reelected. If we don't, then I think we're in bad trouble.

COKIE ROBERTS: What about the platform in a place like Arkansas? Is that going to just make life that much more difficult?

BILL CLINTON: No, I wouldn't think so. There's not too much about this platform that's markedly different on the social issues, if that's what you mean then, and previous Democratic platforms. And the Republican platform is so extreme the other way, much more extreme on the right than ours is tilting moderately liberal that I would think it wouldn't be a great problem.

There are some issues that will cause concern perhaps. But I think we would have lost on those issues anyway among the people--

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Like what?

BILL CLINTON: --who are concerned about-- well, the ERA. Anybody that stomped down against the ERA will be happy that the Republicans abandoned their commitment to it for the first time in 40 years. So I think the shading difference of the platform is not of overwhelming significance. I would think that the homosexual plank in the platform would not hurt at all since it's basically the same position that Governor Reagan took in that initiative in California a couple of years ago.

COKIE ROBERTS: Apparently, we have to go to the platform now. Thank you very much, Governor Clinton. Back to Linda.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Thank you, Cokie Roberts, who is with Governor Bill Clinton of Arkansas down on the floor. The majority leader of the Senate, Robert Byrd of West Virginia, is addressing the convention. Here is Senator Byrd.

ROBERT BYRD: Beliefs that were forged in the wild and beautiful hills of West Virginia and for the past 28 years in the halls of Congress. I believe that the United States of America is still the freest, still the strongest, and still the greatest nation on Earth. I believe that the people of America have more courage, more resourcefulness, more talent, more ingenuity, and more determination than any other people anywhere.

They're not afraid to face the future. They're not afraid of hardship and sacrifice. I know. I grew up in the coal country of West Virginia, where life can be as rough and spare as anywhere else in this great country.

But my people, your people, faced adversity. They toiled and struggled through bank failures and mine closings, through depression and poverty, hunger, sorrow, and war. But they emerged stronger than ever under the leadership of a great Democratic administration, under the great President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and under an equally great President Harry S. Truman.

I believe that Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman believed in people. And the American people want leaders who believe in them, not leaders who look down on them from a platform of privilege. I believe they want leaders who can hear the voice of the people above the voice of the moneyed interests, leaders who would tell them the truth, not the peddlers of quick fixes and snake oil remedies.

The American people will not believe that a simple wave of a wand will end inflation and unemployment. They will not believe the Reagan rhetoric that promises a massive tax cut, a balanced federal budget, and increased defense spending at one and the same time. They will not believe the Reagan far-right rhetoric that says America is weak and that she is number two in military might.

That is wrong. It is misleading. It is a disservice to America. And it is dangerous. And the Soviet Union, as well as our allies, had better not believe it.

The American people will not believe the negative literature that distorts and lies about the voting records of Democratic senators and congressmen and asked for your money through the mail. They will not believe the purveyors of fear, who for short-term political benefits would tear our country down.

On a statue in Atlanta, Georgia, are inscribed these words, "Who saves his country, saves himself, saves all things. And all things saved do bless him. Who lets his country die, lets all things die, dies himself ignobly. And all things dying curse him."

The Democratic Party will work to save our country. And the record of the Democratic Party should be our battle cry. Under the Carter administration, more Americans are at work today than ever before in any administration since the beginning of this republic.

And since 1977, it has been the Carter administration working with the Democratic Congress that for the first time in our nation's history has forged a comprehensive national energy policy, reformed the civil service system, created a new Department of Education, and strengthened the Western alliance.

It is the Democratic Party that has shown compassion for the unemployed worker, for the coal miner with black lung disease, for the ghetto youth, for the veteran, for the retired worker and his widow. It is the Democratic Party that has opened its arms to the poor and the disadvantaged and that has brought to its bosom the minorities of this country.

It is the Democratic Party that has fought to remove the stigma of second class citizenship from the women of America. And it is the Democratic Party that will continue to lead the fight to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. It is the Democratic Party that will provide the tax incentives, whereby America's industrial plant will be revitalized and American goods can once again compete in the world markets.

It is the Democratic Party that will continue to work for sensible arms control to reduce the threat of nuclear destruction but at the same time prudently modernize and improve our nation's and our allies' defenses. I believe that the United States of America needs Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale, not Ronald Reagan and George Bush to lead its battle.

I believe that this country needs a Democratic United States Senate and House of Representatives to win those battles. I believe our country is too vigorous and too young to be stopped in its tracks. Yesterday is gone. It is the Democrats under Franklin Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman and John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon Johnson and Jimmy Carter, yes, and Ted Kennedy, who have looked to the future instead of to the past that never was and never will return.

Our party faces an uphill fight against Ronald Reagan and big money and deceitful propaganda. And the American people are not going to believe that deceitful propaganda that they see in the advertisements and in the literature that goes into millions of homes that distorts and tells lies about the voting records of Democratic senators and members of the House of Representatives.

It is a time to unite, not to divide. It is a time to look forward and not backward. It is a time to work, not to rest. And it is a time to remember, not to forget the principles for which our party stands.

Ideals are like stars. You cannot succeed in touching them with your hands. But like the seafaring man on the desert of waters, you choose them as your guide. And following them, you will reach your destiny. With the ideals of our Democratic Party to guide us and with faith in the work that must be done, we shall reach our destiny.

Victory in November for Jimmy Carter and the Democratic United States Senate and House of Representatives and a future of hope prosperity and peace for all Americans. Thank you, my friends. Thank you.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: The majority leader of the Senate, Robert Byrd of West Virginia, and that is the last speech before the main event. Terry Herndon, the executive director of the National Educational Association, will be the next speaker. And his responsibility is to introduce the vice president of the United States to accept the nomination of his party.

SANDY UNGAR: Linda, Senator Byrd's speech was relatively brief one, a rousing recollection of all the great principles and presidents of the Democratic Party. It did not get a very big reception or enthusiastic reception from this convention hall that's waiting for the main event tonight.

There had been some fuss in the days leading up to the convention over where on the program Senator Byrd would be. He was reportedly insulted because he was invited in the last few weeks to speak at the convention rather than being a major part of the program from the very beginning.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Well, I'm sure there are many of these kinds of difficulties and disagreements that occur right at the last minute.

SANDY UNGAR: Can't be easy.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: I'm looking across the convention floor and at a section, which is one of the VIP sections, one of the areas where people who have some sort of special relationship to the party or special relationship to the candidate are being given a place to sit.

SANDY UNGAR: A few minutes ago in that very section, we had an interesting scene. Neil Goldschmidt of-- the Secretary of Transportation, took off his coat and changed into a green Carter-Mondale vest while Senator-- while Secretary--

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Getting dressed for the occasion. Let's go downstairs where Cokie Roberts is talking to John Cavanaugh, congressman from Texas-- Kansas, I beg your pardon.

SANDY UNGAR: Nebraska, I think.

COKIE ROBERTS: Omaha.

SANDY UNGAR: Nebraska.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Cokie. And our apologies to Congressman Cavanaugh, who is retiring from the Congress. Let's go down and find out how he feels about this scene.

COKIE ROBERTS: Congressman Cavanaugh, you had decided long before this convention that you wouldn't be running again this year. But you were telling me earlier that you thought this was going to be a tough year for Democrats in Congress.

JOHN CAVANAUGH: Well, I think so. I think that this convention has done a lot to enhance the opportunities and status of Jimmy Carter and the Democratic Party. But I think that there is a legitimate problem with the Democratic Congress and its majorities and its longevity that it's maintained control.

And it's got to go back to the American people and resell them this November. And I think that that's a separate problem, a separate and apart from Jimmy Carter's problems.

COKIE ROBERTS: It's interesting because, of course, most analyses go the other way, that Jimmy Carter is the one in trouble. And he's going to be bringing down the Congress, and that there are members of Congress who are trying to run separately from the president because they think they'll do better. And of course, traditionally, Democratic members of Congress have done better than the presidential candidates.

JOHN CAVANAUGH: Well, I may be peculiar, but I think that it's the reverse this year. I think Jimmy Carter is going to be a strong candidate in November. And in fact, I think that the Congress's fortunes are in reverse proportion as Jimmy Carter. I think if the American people reelect Jimmy Carter, as I think they will, I think they're more likely to express their frustration with the conditions of this country with their Congress and send a message to Washington through their Congress.

And so I think a lot of incumbents are worried this year. And they're worried appropriately because it's a very dangerous year for the Congress.

COKIE ROBERTS: So I take it that you're just as happy that you decided not to run.

JOHN CAVANAUGH: I'm happy for that reason and a lot of other reasons, most of which I'll be with my wife and four, soon to be five lovely children.

COKIE ROBERTS: Is there another redhead on the way?

JOHN CAVANAUGH: In September, the end of September. We're waiting anxiously.

COKIE ROBERTS: OK. Thank you very much, John Cavanaugh. Back to you, Linda.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Cokie Roberts down on the floor of the convention, a convention that is growing increasingly restive as it expects the arrival of Vice President Walter Mondale. And then right after he arrives, the president of the United States. Let's go down and listen to Terry Herndon, the executive director of the National Education Association, the leader of one of the largest special interest blocks of delegates at this convention, who will introduce the vice president, Mr. Herndon.

TERRY HERNDON: --of that tradition of compassionate, progressive, creative, and effective leadership. Our tradition includes intense debate and passionate searching for solutions to human need. Walter Mondale has been and is in the forefront of that effort. Our tradition includes an uncompromising commitment to strike down every barrier to the exercise of the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

We therefore have struggled for equality of civil rights for the ERA, for fair housing, equal employment opportunity, labor law reform, full and secure employment, labor rights for migrant workers, labor rights for public employees, adequate health care, adequate child care, housing, nutrition, dignity, and security for the poor and the elderly, and prosperity shared by all rather than a privileged few.

Walter Mondale has been and is a leader in each of these efforts and every single political quest for equity and decency. Our tradition reflects an embrace of the motto of the United Negro College Fund, "A mind is a terrible thing to waste."

We have struggled to assure that every mind, no matter the sex of the body, no matter the color of the skin, no matter the faith of the heart, no matter the language of the tongue, no matter the financial status of the family, no matter, no matter, no matter, every mind shall have the maximum opportunity to develop in a high quality, free public school and an appropriate institution of higher education.

Walter Mondale has led and does lead our effort to bless this nation with education. I have been with this extraordinary man in Washington, in his home state of Minnesota, throughout the United States, and outside the United States. He reaches out with sensitivity, with understanding, and with compassion.

He manifests knowledge, wisdom, wit, and competence. People, all people, respond with respect, hope, confidence, and affection. Americans think better of themselves for having chosen him. And international friends think better of us because we chose him to be our leader.

It is truly astounding that after hours of passionate debate have so clearly demonstrated the diversity of opinion and need in this hall, we see nearly unanimous and equally passionate conviction that more than ever America needs Walter Mondale. We know-- we know that he and his work give a very special glow to the words Democrat and American.

Simultaneously we say to him thank you because we owe him and please because we need him. This convention has admirably fulfilled its grave responsibility to set forth a vice presidential nominee who is thoroughly suited for the presidency. Each Democrat should be proud that this party offers the very best of the American people to the American people.

I rejoice. Therein, I present my friend, America's friend, the vice president of the United States, Walter F. Mondale.

[CHEERING]

[MUSIC PLAYING]

LINDA WERTHEIMER: The vice president of the United States Walter Mondale, the nominee to be the second man on the ticket comes to the platform, waving to the crowd. He was introduced by Terry Herndon of the National Education Association. Mr. Herndon's organization has provided extensive support and help for the campaign.

The vice president's walking back and forth on the platform, waving to people. We see Mrs. Mondale, who is seated down in the front of the podium, getting up and walking out to join her husband and wave to the crowd. The Mondale children are also there.

On the other side of the platform, Mrs. Carter, Amy Carter, Mrs. Lillian Carter, Jeff Carter and his family are here. We're looking down on a number of members of the Carter family and I assume close friends who were seated on the podium. Across the--

SANDY UNGAR: Mondales are sort of strolling around arm in arm, each waving in a-- it's almost a dance. Now Mrs. Mondale is going away again but looks like a rather rehearsed--

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Yes, a sort of a signal, one definitely I got the feeling that they basically told her that this was her cue to abandon ship, and she did. There's a section on the other side of the room for members of the cabinet. Secretary of Defense, Secretary of Labor, the Secretary of the Treasury, among others, are there.

I see presidential advisors Zbigniew Brzezinski. Vice president Walter Mondale is obviously enjoying this, with a big smile for all the people that are waving green and white signs at him. Come the NEA signs, National Education Association signs. They are a significant block.

[CHUCKLES] The vice president is conducting the band and is attempting to stop the demonstration.

SANDY UNGAR: Looks as if they're going to let him speak. They must be a little bit worried now about the timing of these speeches, whether they'll be--

WALTER MONDALE: Thank you.

SANDY UNGAR: --seen by as many people as possible.

WALTER MONDALE: Thank you.

AUDIENCE: (CHANTING) We want Fritz. We want Fritz.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: We want Carter, cheers coming from the floor.

SANDY UNGAR: I think they're saying we want Fritz--

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Mm-hmm.

AUDIENCE: (CHANTING) We want Fritz.

WALTER MONDALE: Thank you.

AUDIENCE: (CHANTING) We want Fritz.

SANDY UNGAR: --which is, of course, the vice president's nickname.

WALTER MONDALE: Thank you.

AUDIENCE: (CHANTING) We want Fritz.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: And he is saying thank you, thank you laughing, waiting for it to subside.

WALTER MONDALE: Thank you. Thank you very, very much.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Here is the vice president, Walter Mondale.

WALTER MONDALE: Mr. Speaker, fellow Americans, fellow Democrats, I am honored to accept your nomination. I am proud to be running with Jimmy Carter.

[CHEERING]

And I am proud to be running on our party's progressive platform. And we're going to win.

[CHEERING]

This has been an extraordinary week in American politics. We have just held the most representative and the most open political convention in American history.

[CHEERING]

Last month in Detroit, another convention was held, isolated in a bubble of privilege from the city that hosted it. A comfortable convention, composed of America's wealthy, told us they symbolized the nation. A malapportioned convention, where the cities were denied their share of the delegates, told they-- told us they symbolized democracy. A token convention, whose workers and women and minorities sat at the back of the bus, were told us-- they told us they symbolized the people.

They spoke of realism and cheered the gold standard. They spoke of truth and said Franklin Roosevelt caused World War II. They spoke of moderation and vindicated Barry Goldwater. They spoke of justice with a script by Phyllis Schlafly. And they spoke of fairness with a text by Jesse Helms.

[CHEERING]

This Democratic convention is a mirror of all America, all of it-- Black and white, Asian and Hispanic, Native and immigrant, male and female, young and old, urban and rural, rich and poor. When we speak of peace, the voice is Ed Muskie's. When we speak of workers--

[CHEERING]

--the voices are Lane Kirkland's and Doug Fraser's. When we speak of freedom, the dream is Coretta King's. When we speak of compassion, the fire is Ted Kennedy's.

[CHEERING]

And when we speak of courage, the spirit is Jimmy Carter.

[CHEERING]

When we in this hall speak for America, it is America that is speaking.

[CHEERING]

Tonight, at this Democratic convention, let us openly declare our faith. We believe in the fundamental decency of the American people. And we believe in strong, efficient, and compassionate government. We believe that America's greatest strength is its values, our love of freedom, our sense of fairness, our spirit of service.

These beliefs have been passed on in every accent that America speaks-- in Polish, and Italian and Yiddish and Greek, at the kitchen tables in Boston, on family farms in my own Midwest. We Democrats believe that government can serve those values. No government can guarantee a perfect life for anyone. No government can substitute for our families, our churches, our synagogues, our neighborhoods, or our volunteers.

But a progressive government must do two things. It must create the conditions to help all people build better lives for themselves. And it must do so efficiently, honestly, and fairly.

[CHEERING]

Those are the beliefs that we share together as Democrats. But the Republican nominee for president has a different view of government. He tells us instead-- and let me use his own words-- that the best thing that government can do is nothing. We disagree.

Let him tell the autoworkers in Detroit that the right to collective bargaining is nothing. Let him tell the senior citizen in Philadelphia that Social Security indexed for inflation is nothing. Let him tell the freshman in Chicago that student assistance is nothing.

Let him ask the family in Boulder of clean air and pure water and protected wilderness are nothing. And let him ask the people of Selma, Alabama, if the right to vote is nothing.

[CHEERING]

These rights and these programs are the work of Democrats and were fiercely opposed by the Republicans. The Republican Party has been out of step with urban America for 50 years. And their nominee is out of step more than any of them.

[CHEERING]

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Vice President Walter Mondale accepting his party's nomination to be the Democratic candidate for vice president.

WALTER MONDALE: --believe that Constitution of the United States should incorporate an Equal Rights Amendment for the women of this country.

[CHEERING]

But, but not Ronald Reagan. Most Americans today believe that we should have strong federal aid to education, at the Department of Education, to support it-- but not Ronald Reagan.

[CHEERING]

Most Americans believe that no family should be impoverished in medical debts because of tragic illness-- but not Ronald Reagan. Most Americans believe in labor law reform to protect the rights won by workers in the '30s-- but not Ronald Reagan.

[CHEERING]

Most Americans believe that workers' health and safety should be protected on the job by federal law-- but--

GROUP: --not Ronald Reagan.

WALTER MONDALE: Most-- you're getting better.

[LAUGHTER]

Most Americans believe that we need energy conservation to cut our dependence on foreign oil-- but not--

GROUP: --Ronald Reagan.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: The convention is joining in, as you can hear, "but not Ronald Reagan," on the chorus. Back to the speech.

WALTER MONDALE: --loyalty test-- but--

GROUP: --not Ronald Reagan.

WALTER MONDALE: And yet the Republican nominee wants us to forget all that, forget 40 years of extreme positions. All of a sudden, that party is for jobs. The party that gave us the Great Depression and, four years ago, the highest unemployment since then would have us believe that they're now working-- for working people and for leaving no one behind.

Well, I've been in politics many years. And I've noticed that the closer the Republican oratory moves to Franklin Roosevelt, the closer their policies move to Herbert Hoover.

[CHEERING]

This year's version of prosperity's just around the corner is called Reagan-Kemp-Roth. It's simple. And it goes like this-- cut taxes by $1 trillion. That's it, their entire strategy. Every one of their promises-- your next paycheck, your grocery bills, your home-- they all hang on that slender thread.

It's a trillion-dollar tax cut based on a 2-cent theory. Every leading economist rejects it. Most Americans disbelieve it, and for a good reason. First of all, it is obviously, murderously inflationary. Even Businessweek said it would touch off an inflationary explosion that would wreck the country.

Second, it's the most regressive tax proposal in history. It is the stalest Republican idea of all. Tax cuts for the wealthy trickle down for the rest of Americans. If you're earning $200,000 a year, you save enough money to buy a new Mercedes. But if you're a teacher, you save enough money to buy a hubcap and--

[CHEERING]

And if you're unemployed or on Social Security, you don't even get your bus fare back.

[LAUGHTER]

[CHEERING]

Kemp-Roth is an insult to the American people. The only way to cut taxes by a trillion dollars, add billions to defense, and balance the budget all at the same time-- as they propose-- is to destroy everything that Roosevelt and Truman and Kennedy and Johnson and Humphrey and Carter and every delegate in this room has worked for all of our lives.

[CHEERING]

Only, only if Mr. Reagan repealed Medicare and Medicaid and all of our programs for schools and cities and veterans and the unemployed, only then could he finance that tax scheme. Only if he destroyed the Social Security System and all who depend upon it, only then would the job be done.

It's hard to believe-- I confess, it's hard to believe that even Ronald Reagan would do that. After all, what kind of a person would try to wipe out every program since Roosevelt? Well, he'd have to be a person who believes, and I quote, "Fascism was really the basis for the New Deal."

Now, who would say something like that? Ronald Reagan would. He'd have to be a person who calls the weak and the disadvantaged, and I quote, "A faceless mass waiting for handouts." Who on Earth would say something like that?

GROUP: Ronald Reagan did.

WALTER MONDALE: He'd have to be a person who would call programs that help Black and Hispanics demeaning and insulting. Who on Earth would say that?

GROUP: Ronald Reagan did.

WALTER MONDALE: He'd have to be a person who believes, and I quote, get this, "The minimum wage has caused more misery and unemployment than anything since the Great Depression." Who on Earth would say anything like that?

GROUP: Ronald Reagan.

WALTER MONDALE: He'd have to be a person who thinks antitrust suits should bust up trade unions in America. Who would propose anything like that?

GROUP: Ronald Reagan.

WALTER MONDALE: He'd have to be a person who would wreck the Social Security system by making it voluntary. Who would ever suggest anything like that?

AUDIENCE: Ronald Reagan.

WALTER MONDALE: He'd have to be a person who would destroy the family farm programs because they're, quote, "Subsidizing the inefficient." Who would propose anything like that?

GROUP: Ronald Reagan--

WALTER MONDALE: --of course. He would have to be a person who called the Civil Rights Act of 1964 a bad piece of legislation. Who would say anything like that?

AUDIENCE: Ronald Reagan.

WALTER MONDALE: One of the finest student bodies I've ever lectured to in my life.

[CHEERING]

Now, get this one. Who on Earth would call the League of Women Voters Rhinemaidens?

AUDIENCE: Ronald--

WALTER MONDALE: Who would say anything like that? You guessed it, Ronald Reagan. That negative thinking, I must say, was not a part of the small towns of rural Minnesota where I grew up. That kind, that tone of resentment was never heard in my father's church.

That cynicism was not what I felt in the high schools, the farms, the factories, and the homes that I visited all over this nation in the last 3 and 1/2 years. The fact of it is that the people of this country want to work together. They want to build. They're confident.

And as the Republican nominee will learn in November, the American people do not and want-- will not turn back. They want to move forward. And moving forward is what we're doing under President Carter.

[CHEERING]

This administration has a good solid progressive record. And we're going to run on it. And we're going to win with it. In 1976, I will remind you, from this podium, we said we believed in jobs. And today there are over 8 million poor people at work than on the day that President Carter was inaugurated.

A higher percentage of working age Americans are on the job today than ever before. We have added more jobs to the workforce than any administration in American history. That is a good-- the best record of producing jobs in American history. And Jimmy Carter deserves credit for that accomplishment.

[CHEERING]

But we all know there are still too many unemployed in America. And I pledge to you, I pledge to every delegate in this convention hall and to the American people, that this administration and this Democratic Party will not stop until everybody who needs and wants a job in America has one.

[CHEERING]

In 1976, we promised Americans that we would support education. And after eight years of Republican vetoes and Impoundment, President Carter has added more funds to education than any president in American history.

[CHEERING]

President Carter goes down as the most pro-education president in the nation's history.

[CHEERING]

We said we believed in the dignity of our seniors. We rescued the Social Security system from the brink of bankruptcy, where the Republicans left it. And we made sure the benefits kept on growing. We increased health care programs for the elderly by 50%, doubled housing aid, eliminated the cash down payment for food stamps.

We proposed and passed the nation's first program to help older Americans pay their fuel bills. And up and down this progressive agenda, this administration has delivered. And I would point out that President Carter has appointed more women, more Blacks, and more minorities to the federal bench than all the previous presidents in American history combined.

[CHEERING]

We created the first farm-held reserves. And each year, we broke an all-time record in farm exports. We passed the biggest increase in minimum wages. We doubled legal services for the poor. We built the most effective across-the-board pro-city policy in our history. Every mayor and county executive practically in America is supporting President Carter because he's done more for the cities than any president in American history.

[CHEERING]

We did this within a tight budget to bring down inflation. It is a good solid record, my Democrats. It is a good solid record. Let's be proud of it. Let's work for it. And let's fight those who wish to destroy it. Let's stick with this good president and this political party and the platform that we've developed.

[CHEERING]

Let us not go for this quick-fix tax cut for the rich. The American people do not want to wipe out a half century of progress in the know-nothing season of resentment. The American people do want their government to be efficient and honest. And I'm confident they also want their government to fight for social and economic justice.

And on that belief, I will stake this election. We will also stake the contest on the paramount issue that the Republicans tried to raise in Detroit, the question of national strength. We gladly accept the challenge.

The president of the United States has an enormous job. He's charged with the most powerful responsibility and sober responsibility to be found in the world, the burden of nuclear power. He is the leader of the civilized world.

He must defend its freedom. He must grasp the complexities of our difficult world. He must protect our security by freeing our dependence on foreign oil. And to do all of that, we must have a strong president.

Yet last month, Ronald Reagan spent two days on national television drawing up a plan to divide the presidency and weaken its powers. Anyone who seeks the presidency and in his first serious act, convenes a constitutional convention in his hotel room to weaken the office he's seeking, does not understand the constitution, the presidency, or what national security is all about.

[CHEERING]

The first responsibility of a strong president is to defend our nation. For the eight years of Republican rule while the Soviets were building up their power, real American defense spending dropped 35%. That's the Republican record.

We not only have increased real defense support by 10%, we have also invested in the most sophisticated weapons in the world. Today, no American general or admiral would dream of exchanging our forces for any on Earth. But Mr. Reagan scolds us for having canceled an outmoded bomber that would be obsolete and vulnerable the day that it was launched.

President Carter chose instead the modern cruise missile, which renders the whole expensive Soviet air defense system obsolete. Up and down the defense agenda, the Republicans repeat the same mistakes. They want to resurrect decommissioned ships. They want to revive the ABM system, which even Nixon junked.

With obsolete missiles, mothballed ships, vulnerable bombers, and petrified ideas, they would waste billions on defense relics that would drain and weaken us. President Carter does not want to mimic the Soviets [INAUDIBLE].

He has chosen to offset it with the greatest resource we have, the genius of American technology. And as a result, this nation today is building security not for yesterday, but for the rest of the century. National strength requires more than just military might. It requires the commitment of the president to arms control.

If there is one thing that bothers me more than anything else, and I think bothers you, it is the fear that some day, somehow for reasons that don't matter, the world will resort to the final madness of a nuclear holocaust. Reason, common sense, and a decent respect for humanity demand that we stall this nuclear arms race before it bankrupts and destroys us all.

[CHEERING]

Without arms control, everything is out of control. Without the SALT treaty, we would be forced to waste billions on weapons that buy us nothing. And even though it took seven years to negotiate this treaty and even though our president and our secretary of Defense and all the Joint Chiefs of Staff and every NATO ally wants this treaty ratified, Mr. Reagan, for the life of him, cannot understand why.

Well, let me say, Mr. Reagan. We must have arms control for the life of all of us. And we need a President Jimmy Carter who believes in controlling the madness of nuclear arms.

[CHEERING]

[CHANTING]

Above all-- above all, America's strength depends on American values. Every time we have a foreign policy that reflects Americans' belief, we strengthen this nation. Last month, I was in Nigeria, the world's most powerful Black nation and the second largest source of American oil.

A few years ago, the Secretary of State under the Republicans was told he was not welcome in Nigeria because they did not stand up for the principle of human rights and majority rule. But when I went to Nigeria, I was welcomed because the United States has a president, President Carter, who in his first act in office said, from here on out, United States is going to stand for human rights and majority rule all over this Earth.

[CHEERING]

[CHANTING]

And now-- and now in Rhodesia, we see the same developments, a new democracy based on Democratic institutions and the Soviets suffering another reversal. Today, our human rights policy is drawing the nations of Africa and the world together like a magnet and toward us.

The Republicans say that a strong nation is one that never apologizes to anyone. I say it's a nation whose leaders are not doing things for which we must apologize. That's the difference.

[CHEERING]

A foreign policy that reflects American values advances American interests. When President Carter saw to it that we ratified the Panama Canal treaties, not only did we rid ourselves of the last vestiges of colonialism, we also strengthened our influence in Latin America. When the President normalized relations with China, he not only told one fourth of the human race that they exist, he also established a powerful counterforce to Soviet aggression.

And when the President denounced the persecution of Andrei Sakharov, he not only affirmed individual liberty, he also unmasked the Kremlin to other nations. Today, my fellow Democrats, thank God and for your four years our nation is at peace.

[CHEERING]

Our armed forces are engaged in combat nowhere in the world. But I want you to note this. In the years of preparing to run for the presidency, Mr. Reagan suggested that American forces be sent-- now, listen to this. Mr. Reagan said that we should send American forces to Ecuador, to Angola, to Rhodesia, to Panama, to Cyprus, to Pakistan, to North Korea, to the Middle East. And I don't think the American people stand for that for a moment.

[CHEERING]

They want a president who is steady, who's sober, who's experienced, and who has demonstrated that he knows how to keep the peace. And that's why they're going to reelect President Carter.

[CHEERING]

They want a president who like Jimmy Carter took Egypt and Israel that had fought four tragic wars in 30 years, brought them together, got them talking, caused a peace treaty to be signed. And tonight they are exchanging ambassadors and not bullets between Egypt and Israel because of Jimmy Carter's courage and leadership.

[CHEERING]

And let me say a special word about Israel. Israel is our friend, our conscience, our partner. Its well-being is in our moral, our political, and our strategic interests. And I stand before you tonight and say that the people of the United States, the President of the United States, will stand by Israel in this term, in the next term, and always.

[CHEERING]

In the last 3 and 1/2 years, you have permitted me to serve you as your vice president. I've been privileged to represent you to the people of every continent on this Earth. And every time I've traveled abroad, the more I've loved my home.

I've spent my whole life in the struggle for civil rights. But when I heard the president of Senegal invoke the words of Martin Luther King, seldom have I loved our conscience more. My whole life, I've been proud of the refuge we've been to exiles. But when I saw the men of the USS Midway who had saved boat people from the sea, seldom have I prized-- seldom have I prized our compassion more.

I have been my whole life an advocate of family farming in America. But when I spent a week in China answering questions about our triumphs, seldom have I respected and admired our genius more. All my life I believed that America must be strong. But when I met the people of Norway, whose independence our strength protects, seldom have I been more thankful for our power.

Like every American, I value our freedom above all else. But when the US Olympic Committee and American athletes sacrifice for an Afghan nation half a world away, seldom have I loved our people more.

[CHEERING]

We are blessed to be Americans. We are an example to the world. Don't let anyone tell you that we're less than we've been. And don't let anyone make us less than we can be. Thank you.

[CHEERING]

Thank you.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Vice President Walter Mondale and his wife Joan, waving to the crowd. Their children are coming up to stand with them. We're going to go down to the floor of the convention, where Alan Berlow is talking to the vice president's chief of staff, who has been involved in the campaign for the Carter-Mondale ticket and for the Carter-Mondale ticket to be nominated. Let's go down to Alan Berlow.

ALAN BERLOW: Linda, I'm here with Dick Moe. Dick, this is obviously one of the best responses that we've had at this convention here. The vice president has hit on what are probably going to be the major themes of this campaign, an attack on Ronald Reagan, and laying out pretty much the Carter-Mondale record of the last 3 and 1/2 years. What's he left for the president to say?

RICHARD MOE: Well, I think you're right. I think this really does outline some of the themes we're all going to be hearing in the general election. What the vice president really tried to do here tonight was two things, first of all, to draw those sharp contrasts between the Carter administration and Reagan. And you're going to be hearing a lot more about that. There's a lot of very clear-cut differences in positions here. And that's what a campaign is all about, to debate those two things.

The second thing he tried to do was to outline our record to be sure but really in a way that allowed the American people to understand what we are really offering in the second term. And I think that's going to be the second part of our theme here today.

ALAN BERLOW: Vice President Mondale has a strong appeal in the Kennedy wing of the party. I'm wondering is-- is the vice president going to be playing a very active role in terms of bringing those Kennedy people on board in the fall campaign?

RICHARD MOE: Oh, there's no question about it. And he already has been during the convention. We are eager to have everyone's support and particularly the support of those people who back Senator Kennedy. But I have no doubt it's going to be forthcoming. We're going to all get together very quickly.

ALAN BERLOW: And in terms of the vice president's role in the actual campaigning, do you expect both he and the president to be doing a lot more campaigning than we saw them doing during the primary fight?

RICHARD MOE: Well, as you know, the vice president carried the burden of the campaigning during the primaries. But I think you'll see them both out on the campaign trail a good bit this fall.

ALAN BERLOW: OK. Thank you very much, Dick Moe, chief of staff to Vice President Mondale. Back to you, Linda, in the sky booth.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Thank you very much, Alan Berlow with Richard Moe. Dick Moe is the chief of staff for the vice president. The vice president and his entire family are on the platform. And here he comes again to wave to the crowd, another surge of cheers. His oldest son Teddy, Theodore Mondale, looks quite a lot like him.

SANDY UNGAR: He certainly does. He looks almost identical to him, Linda. It's really--

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Sort of a younger blonder Fritz Mondale.

SANDY UNGAR: A clone almost.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: And then there's the middle child, a daughter, Eleanor, and the youngest son William, who is-- looks much more like his mother and is dark like his mother.

SANDY UNGAR: Linda, after Vice President Mondale spoke, various party officials and officials of this convention sort of came up one by one and shook his hand as if to say, good job, Fritz.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Well, I think there must have been a certain amount of tension at this convention among the Carter-Mondale forces to see if anyone was ever-- was going to be able to bring the kind of fire and spirit to the convention that Senator Kennedy did when he addressed the convention. And I think that the Carter-Mondale forces must be very happy with this speech, which as was predicted by the president's pollster Patrick Caddell, it was a cheerleading speech.

SANDY UNGAR: There's the vice president and Mrs. Mondale again, another wave to the crowd, acknowledging cheers. They seem not to want to delay this demonstration too long.

SPEAKER 1: You are listening to live coverage of the Democratic National Convention in New York on Minnesota Public Radio's news and information service. This is KSJN, Minneapolis, St. Paul. Local coverage of the Democratic National Convention is made possible with a grant from the Minneapolis Star. The time exactly, 9 o'clock. Now, back to New York.

JOHN SEARS: --because with the demonstration that you can expect whenever the president shows up here and the film, they're going to be giving the president's speech at quite a late hour.

SANDY UNGAR: In fact, the vice president seemed to be rushing through his speech in some places, as if he'd been told, hurry up. Get off on time.

THOMAS P. O'NEILL: Let's turn to the future as it introduces our president, the Democratic nominee.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: The chairman of the convention, Thomas P. O'Neill, the Speaker of the House, is telling the convention that there is going to be a film. This is not going to be as much fun for those of you who are listening to us on the radio as it is for the people who are here in the hall because we hardly ever manage to show a film on National Public Radio.

JOHN SEARS: But then again it isn't much of a film.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Oh.

[LAUGHTER]

SANDY UNGAR: Well, how can you be sure--

LINDA WERTHEIMER: We've tried. We certainly have tried. But somehow we've never quite managed it.

SANDY UNGAR: We might go back while this film is being shown and review a little bit about Vice President Mondale's speech while waiting for the president to come. It was certainly written with-- not only with quite a few applause lines in it that seemed well delivered, but also gave the audience lots of opportunity to participate. They joined in these chants of, not Ronald Reagan, at one stage of the speech and, Ronald Reagan, later on, all the appropriate moments.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: The cheer that you hear from the floor of the convention comes because this film-- after showing us a sight of the Washington Monument, the Jefferson Memorial, and the Lincoln Memorial-- has now shown us President Carter. Sandy, you were saying about the speech?

SANDY UNGAR: Yes, there were a number of good points. One of the very interesting things that the vice president did in the speech was to make fun of the attempt at the Republican convention last month to get Gerald Ford to run as vice president.

One of the cleverest lines in the speech, I suppose, was that he said that anyone who seeks the presidency and in his first serious act, convenes a constitutional convention in his hotel room to weaken his office, fails to understand the constitution, the presidency, and what national strength requires-- not a big issue, but a reminder of this attempt, this somewhat mishandled attempt to recruit President Ford to the Reagan ticket.

The other-- one other interesting or a couple other interesting points in the Mondale speech were that the president was-- the vice president was careful to stress support for Israel and got quite a number of cheers about that. He also used the word "progressive" to refer to the president and to the platform, which seemed to be a very carefully selected bit of vocabulary.

JOHN SEARS: Maybe this film isn't so bad after all. They had a very good shot there of the president holding his head in the Oval Office. I thought that was quite dramatic.

SANDY UNGAR: John, what were your reactions to this speech?

JOHN SEARS: Well, it was typical campaign speech. Normally, the division of labors for a presidential campaign does call for the vice president to carry the heavy mail and the president to try, if he can, to act like the president. And at least in the first phase tonight, we saw Mr. Mondale sort of delivering the heavy mail of the one-liners on Ronald Reagan and trying to pep up this crowd into a campaigning spirit.

I would expect that when Mr. Carter delivers his speech, the attempt will be made to maintain a presidential posture about his comments and that they won't be quite as strong as what we've heard from Mr. Mondale.

SANDY UNGAR: John, what about the sort of contrast?

[CROWD BOOING]

The boos just came for the appearance of--

[CHEERING]

--Richard Nixon. And now there are cheers because of the appearance of Harry Truman-- both in the film of course, not in the convention hall.

[LAUGHTER]

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Sandy, I'm going to interrupt this conversation for a moment. Here's a big cheer for President John Kennedy, who is also part of this film. We're going to go down to Nina Totenberg, who is on the floor of the convention with Michael Barone, who has been a pollster working for the Kennedy side until this point and of course now has no more campaign left there, to see what he has to say about what a Democratic campaign strategy might be for 1980. Nina Totenberg.

NINA TOTENBERG: Thank you, Linda. Mike Barone is a person who's watched a lot of elections, general elections of all sorts-- congressional, presidential. Let me ask you, Mr. Barone. Let's start off. Can Jimmy Carter win? The polls say he's very far behind now. Can he win?

MICHAEL BARONE: The answer is sure, he can win. The fact is that a lot of the voters around the country-- the basic mood we find in voters in the country, they're dissatisfied. They're unhappy. They are looking for an alternative. But they were also willing to consider Carter.

So I think in the next couple of months, there remains the possibility of substantial changes from the current standings that we see with Ronald Reagan ahead. Reagan can crumble. Anderson could crumble. Or if Carter is able to achieve a better job of presenting a strong positive vision of the country than he has to date, then he could do better than he's doing now.

NINA TOTENBERG: We have heard almost nothing at this convention about the hostage situation, something we heard a great deal about during the course of the primary campaign. And I'm wondering whether that can be glossed over. When you stay at a convention for four days and you don't hear about it, you tend to forget it.

But I suspect Ronald Reagan won't let us forget it. And will it hurt Carter personally?

MICHAEL BARONE: Well, I've obviously help him. If the ayatollah were to say tomorrow, I have been convinced by the statements of President Carter that our policy here in Iran is mistaken and I'm going to release these hostages, and in the spirit of the Chinese government after the Boxer Rebellion in 1900s, submit a written apology to the United States, that would obviously help Carter a whole lot.

NINA TOTENBERG: But if nothing happens, if we stay in the current status quo?

MICHAEL BARONE: Well, I don't know that it remains a overwhelming problem because for better or worse, rightly or wrongly, the attention of the American people has shifted elsewhere. We've had people held illegally by foreign countries before.

And I think even during an election [INAUDIBLE] Pueblo in 19-- was '68 I think. They were held during the election period and released afterwards. It's my recollection. And that could conceivably so-- I don't think it's determinative.

NINA TOTENBERG: What about Congress? We've seen polls recently that show for the first time that the American people think in a general sort of way that they could hand control of Congress over to the Republicans. Of course, those-- the questions asked in the polling weren't about specific seats.

But people who really normally would not be considered in vulnerable electoral situations, this year seem to be. Could the Senate go Republican? Could the House go Republican?

MICHAEL BARONE: Well, it's within the realm of possibility for the Senate to go Republican. The more likely result is that the Senate would go into a situation where Democratic seats would be reduced to a small enough number that the Republicans would probably have effective control of the Senate. If Democrats lose five or more seats, I think we're in roughly that situation.

In the House, there doesn't seem to be any chance the Republicans could win control. They've got to win approximately 60 seats in order to do that. But I do think they have an excellent chance to get 30 seats. And if they get that, they're going to be on the verge of effective control or operating control of the House as well. And I think that it could be a victory across the board for the Republican Party conceivably this year. But it has yet to be played out.

NINA TOTENBERG: As a critical observer of this process, what do you think will happen to the Anderson fortunes? Up or down?

MICHAEL BARONE: If I had to bet money on it today, I'd bet up. But once again, I think that's something that's contingent. I think in-- my own judgment is that before our Labor Day, Anderson is going to have to convey and communicate something more to the American people than what he's conveyed so far, which is, as I see it, is that he's against the Vietnam War. He's in favor of gun control. And he's in favor of allowing people to have abortions.

He's signaled a significant segment of the electorate that he shares their views on these issues. But he hasn't really said anything to the remaining part of the electorate as to why they should vote for him. I think he's got to do this and do it darn fast.

He's got some ads going on the air in the last couple of weeks. I have not had seen them myself and don't know their subject matter. But I think he's got to get some messages out like that very quickly or he just has a limited constituency. And if that's all he's got, that's going to start to fade by November.

NINA TOTENBERG: Michael Barone, thanks very much. I'm Nina Totenberg just outside the floor of the convention. Back to you in the booth, Linda Wertheimer.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Thank you very much, Nina Totenberg. We are still watching a film, which will introduce the president, who will make his acceptance speech in just a few moments in this hall. I'm Linda Wertheimer. We're in a sky booth, above the floor of the darkened convention. John Sears is here in San Fernando.

Gentlemen, we were talking about Walter Mondale and the rousing campaign speech that he made. One of the things that the vice president must do now is face the vice president of the other party, the nominee George Bush, in a debate. Vice President Mondale did very well in the last vice presidential debate against Robert Dole, Senator Dole of Kansas.

He made a good speech here tonight. That seems to be one of his talents. What do you think? Do you think he'll overwhelm George Bush or--

JOHN SEARS: Well, I don't know about that. I would think that it would be interesting to watch the two of them. I don't really understand the relevance of vice presidential debates myself.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Or vice presidents.

JOHN SEARS: Well, vice presidents have one specific duty. And that's clear enough. And that is to check, as one of them said once, into the health of the president every day. But I really don't understand quite the relevance of those debates.

It would make just as much sense if the two presidential candidates decided to pick a surrogate and let them go at it. But Mr. Mondale did give a good account of himself tonight, I thought. His speech was really a good party speech. And he delivered it well,

It was perhaps just a shade long. But that's usually the case at these affairs.

SANDY UNGAR: John, the--

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Cheers for the mayor of New York, whose face appears in this film.

SANDY UNGAR: In defense of the vice presidential debates, of course, a number of vice presidents have succeeded to the presidency in the last couple of decades. And so presumably, it could be argued that the people want to look at them too in some detail, see how they handle things.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Yes, how did-- how do you think he did? Do you think he wrested back the heart and soul of the party so that he could inherit it in 1984 with the speech?

JOHN SEARS: Mr. Mondale?

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Mm-hmm.

JOHN SEARS: No, I don't think he quite did that. He did give a good speech, though. I thought he was better than I've seen him on other occasions this evening.

SANDY UNGAR: Do you think that his role in contrast to George Bush, though, will be a very important factor in the campaign, John?

JOHN SEARS: Well, the incumbent vice president has better standing to speak to policy than the challenger does. And that is-- both gives him a bigger role in the campaign and also I think arms him with a little extra in a debate. He has been there. And at least that gives him an aura of credibility about what he says.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: It is fairly clear in the early going, making judgments based on the schedules, the staff, and the support and whatnot that George Bush has from the Reagan campaign, that he is not a very important element even in his own campaign. So it's a difficult process for vice presidents to make their importance, I suppose, felt by everybody.

What we're waiting for here as we watch this film is President Carter, who will be coming here in just a few minutes. He will be appearing before the convention. And he will be speaking about his record. He will be making this very serious speech, which is his attempt to overpower his standing in the polls, turn his back on four difficult years, set an agenda for the future, and inspire the Democrats to go out and try to make him President and not let Ronald Reagan get a good shot at it.

SANDY UNGAR: The most recent cheer in the background was for Congressman Morris Udall, who appeared in this film, seems to have a lot of friends and supporters in the hall. He, you'll remember, gave the keynote speech on Monday night, which does seem like it was a long time ago.

JOHN SEARS: Interesting in regard to this film, there's very little of Jimmy Carter in it. You might say a whole parade of other people but not very much of Jimmy Carter.

SANDY UNGAR: What's happening in the film now is there's a sort of series of testimonials, a number of well-known figures from Congress. The one speaking in the film right now is Congressman Peter Rodino from New Jersey. Here's Mayor Dianne Feinstein of San Francisco now.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Are we going to-- are we going to see, do you think, the same sort of concern about the hostages raised in the latter part of the campaign that we've seen raised in the first part? This was something which was mentioned by Nina just a few minutes ago when she was talking to someone down on the floor.

The president obviously has to say something about the hostages and their situation. And that continues to be, I would imagine, a major concern for this campaign. Election day will be their first anniversary if they have not been released.

SANDY UNGAR: I would think, Linda, that the president's going to have to get back to that. There certainly are bound to be indirect if not direct references to the hostage situation in the Republican campaign. John, how do you think the Republican candidates will handle the hostage question during this tough campaign ahead?

JOHN SEARS: Well, I think that obviously they will raise the issue of why they're still in captivity and blame the president for mishandling the situation. I would say this, though. Again, the president sort of has the call on matters of that kind. And you have to be very careful in discussing an issue of that nature simply because, as Mr. Kennedy found out in his campaign, if you make a miscalculation in criticism, the president can accuse you of all kinds of un-American activity and make it stick.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: The president is going to be talking in a rather more serious vein than Vice President Mondale did in his rousing cheerleading sort of speech with its responses from the crowd. We're expecting the president to talk about his record. We're expecting him to talk about the accomplishments of his administration. We're expecting him to set some kind of agenda for the future.

We expect that he will be very critical of Governor Reagan and Governor Reagan's candidacy. And he will give us all a few things to worry about if Governor Reagan is president. I think that that's one of the major themes that the president will be concentrating on.

JOHN SEARS: I think, too, as Pat Caddell was saying while we're talking about the future and the relevance of this election to the future of this country, Americans sort of live on hope, and they've had very little of it lately. I think we can expect the president to raise some hope for them.

Of course, he did that in 1976. And one of the difficulties he's had in his first four years is people have felt that the hope was not fulfilled. But that doesn't mean anything to a politician. You still must go ahead and raise it again. And I think you'll see some of that here, too.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: There's also possibility of the president's emphasis on human rights, the president's emphasis on Camp David, some of the successes that he has had, overseas especially. I think we will hear more about that tonight.

SANDY UNGAR: That's right. In this film, they showed of course the signing of the Camp David Accords between Prime Minister Begin and President Sadat at the White House with President Carter there. In a very short time, I think what they're going to do when this film is over is just put lights on the podium, and the president's going to come out.

It should be a rather dramatic appearance in this hall. And we can probably expect quite an enormous cheer from the crowd when he does appear there apparently as it's scheduled. The lights and the--

LINDA WERTHEIMER: The film is now comparing the president to Teddy Roosevelt, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, John Kennedy. And then--

SANDY UNGAR: Even George Washington was in there.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: George Washington, Andrew Jackson, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln. A paragon, I think we have to say.

JOHN SEARS: Film is biting off a lot to chew here, comparing Mr. Carter to some of these individuals. I really wonder whether a lot of the people watching this would really identify with the kinds of associations that are being made here.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: The film is now showing us a shot of the president hard at work late at night in the Oval Office, wearing a sweater, holding his glasses, and looking thoughtful.

FILM NARRATOR: --the President of the United States.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: And here he is, President Carter.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

JOHN SEARS: They lit the podium up.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: And the flags. We see the Secret Service in position. The music begins to play.

JOHN SEARS: "Hail to the Chief."

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Spotlights moving around the VIP section on the platform. We see the vice president's family is there, Mrs. Carter dressed in a bright deep pink dress, Amy Carter in another lovely little girl dress with a ribbon in her hair, Mrs. Lilly Carter is down at the front. And there is the president.

SANDY UNGAR: There's the president now. There are sort of strobe lights being flashed around the room in honor of his appearance.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: The president is waving to the crowd. "Happy Days Are Here Again."

SANDY UNGAR: He had a broad smile. And--

LINDA WERTHEIMER: And every time the hall lights, the president walks toward the side where his family is seated. There's a kiss to his mother and his wife. They are seated near each other in the podium. He's waving to one side of the crowd, smiling, looking toward the middle of the auditorium. President is wearing a red, white, and blue striped tie.

SANDY UNGAR: Patriotic. The Democrats have shown tonight that they can be quite patriotic, too, that it's not just the Republicans. There was a very patriotic beginning to this session tonight with the "Pledge of Allegiance" and "The Star-Spangled Banner" that are more dramatic than on other nights.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: President Carter sort of appears to be just standing there and letting it all wash over him, all this approval and affection coming up from the crowd.

SANDY UNGAR: Of course, he's smiling. But with Jimmy Carter, that's-- he smiles rather often.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: He's now stepped up to the microphones as if he plans to make a speech. We have reason to believe he does plan to make a speech.

JOHN SEARS: Will be interesting to see when these balloons referred to earlier are dropped after his speech, really what will become of them. According to good balloon drop theory, you want to drop the balloons so they fall in front of the television cameras and the other photographic people in the press so that as they try to take pictures of the podium, they can't help but see these balloons. And as you see, the balloons are positioned a little off center for that.

SANDY UNGAR: Yes, they are, a little bit to the back, I would say, of the hall. The number of-- a lot of state flags being waved right now, almost as if-- quite a few states have very, very large state flags they're waving.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: President is now walking around the platform again, waving at the crowd and at the crowd, which has filled Madison Square Garden to the top now. There are only very few sections of seats that are not filled. And those are sections where you have absolutely no view of anything.

SANDY UNGAR: I think they're not going to encourage too long a demonstration because of this problem of getting the president on national television and radio at the best time. It's now 23 minutes after 10:00 on the East Coast. This is running 18 minutes behind so far, which is not bad for the Democrats who are usually a little bit late at these meetings.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: I think the arrangement is supposed to be that there's a small demonstration before the speech. We want Jimmy. We want Jimmy, as he spreads his arms and says to them, you've got me.

SANDY UNGAR: [LAUGHS]

You've got me but let me talk, he's probably thinking. There was a small problem during Vice President Mondale speech. And the microphones appeared to be poorly placed. And the vice president sometimes wandered off so that everybody couldn't hear him very clearly. Presumably, that's been fixed or the president has been warned about what happened to the vice president during his speech.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Well, I think it's probably much more likely that the microphones were set for the president.

SANDY UNGAR: Although he must have heard the vice president and asked some of the Democratic Party's experts--

LINDA WERTHEIMER: That's an old sweet song. It's "Georgia on My Mind," Peter Duchin. Orchestra up at the top of this arena. They have telephone instructions from the podium to the orchestra. The orchestra is told to speed up, slow down, play something loud, stop playing in order to try to direct the progress of the demonstrations to some extent.

JOHN SEARS: We know that the president's brother Billy is not here as-- is his sister here? Have you happen to notice?

SANDY UNGAR: He has two sisters, of course. I don't think--

JOHN SEARS: You know which one I mean.

[LAUGHTER]

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Ruth Carter Stapleton, the evangelist--

SANDY UNGAR: Ruth Carter Stapleton, the evangelist.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: --is probably the most famous sister.

SANDY UNGAR: I do not see her through these binoculars in the family section there. He also has a sister named Gloria Spann. And I-- though I'm less familiar with her face, I don't see her there either. Amy is there certainly in the front row, applauding along with other members of the family.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Mrs. Carter, the wife rather than Mrs. Carter the mother, has just gone down to the end of the road to pick up her grandson, who is named after his grandfather, the president, hold up the baby.

SANDY UNGAR: He doesn't seem to want to be picked up by his grandmother.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: No, he's standing on a chair and clapping and enjoying the demonstration.

SANDY UNGAR: Now, Mrs. Carter is going back into standing with Amy instead, moving back toward the central podium. Also in this sort of family area, just next to the podium, is Robert Strauss, the head of the president's campaign.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: I like this arrangement where the states all have their flags out and waving. It's much easier for me to tell where they are than to read the state stanchions from way up here at the top.

SANDY UNGAR: Especially if you recognize the flags, Linda. We could have a contest.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: New Mexico.

SANDY UNGAR: You recognize New Mexico, I wonder why.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Right down in the front.

SANDY UNGAR: I certainly noticed Pennsylvania over there, the state flag, and a few others besides New Mexico and Pennsylvania.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: The president is trying to get the crowd to-- well, I take that back. He is now is cheering them on.

SANDY UNGAR: How many-- "Happy Days Are Here Again" has been played at this convention about as often as the Michigan fight song was at a Republican convention.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: [LAUGHS]

SANDY UNGAR: The demonstration has gone 7 minutes so far. It seems to be stopping, maybe.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Well, I think everyone is anxious to cooperate with the effort to get the president's speech on the early part of the evening since that's what the Arrangements committee wants. It's what the president wants. Everyone has been told that's what's supposed to happen, an appropriate amount of enthusiasm but don't mess up the timing.

JOHN SEARS: Well, when the band stops, that's the signal that you should stop. And the band has stopped now. So I would expect that.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: And the president is now thanking the crowd. We can-- I think we can take that as an indication that he's ready.

SANDY UNGAR: The expression on the face on his face would indicate he can't quite decide if it's quiet enough yet to start.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Let's go down and listen because it looks as though he's about to begin.

JIMMY CARTER: Thank you all very much.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: The president of the United States.

[CHANTING]

JIMMY CARTER: Fellow Democrats, fellow citizens, I thank you for the nomination you've offered me.

[CHEERING]

And I especially thank you for choosing as my running mate the best partner any president ever had, Fritz Mondale.

[CHEERING]

With gratitude and with determination, I accept your nomination.

[CHEERING]

And I am proud to run on the progressive and sound platform that you have hammered out at this convention.

[CHEERING]

Fritz and I will mount a campaign that defines the real issues, a campaign that responds to the intelligence of the American people, a campaign that talks sense. And we're going to beat the Republicans in November!

[CHEERING]

SANDY UNGAR: It's just a burst of noise. It would appear to be firecrackers. But security men have just rushed in front of the platform. They're tackling some people in the front of the hall and seems to have been only firecrackers, though it made a lot of noise and seems to have alarmed some people very quickly.

The Secret Service men seemed to have tackled somebody and carried them out of the hall. But the president didn't pause for a moment. We'll go back now to the president's acceptance speech.

JIMMY CARTER: And as Truman said, he just told the truth. And they thought it was hell.

[CHEERING]

And we're the party of a gallant man of spirit, John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

[CHEERING]

And we're the party of a great leader of compassion, Lyndon Baines Johnson--

[CHEERING]

--and the party of a great man who should have been president and who would have been one of the greatest presidents in history Hubert Horatio Hornblower--

[CHEERING]

--Humphrey! I have appreciated what this convention.

SANDY UNGAR: Listen, Carter just made a mistake in referring to former Vice President Humphrey. He called him Hubert Horatio Hornblower at first and then corrected himself to say Humphrey.

JIMMY CARTER: And we are also the party of Governor Jerry Brown and Senator Edward Kennedy.

[CHEERING]

I'd like to say a personal word to Senator Kennedy. Ted, you're a tough competitor and a superb campaigner. And I can attest to that.

[CHEERING]

Your-- your speech before this convention was a magnificent statement of what the Democratic Party is and what it means to the people of this country. And while the Democratic victory is so important this year, I reach out to you tonight and I reach out to all those who supported you and your valiant and passionate campaign. Ted, your party needs and I need you.

[CHEERING]

And I need your idealism and your dedication working for us. There is no doubt that even greater service lies ahead of you. And we are grateful to you.

[CHEERING]

And I have your strong partnership now in a larger cause, to which your own life has been dedicated. I thank you for your support. We'll make great partners this fall in whipping the Republicans.

[CHEERING]

We are Democrats, and we've had our differences. But we share a bright vision of America's future, a vision of a good life for all our people, a vision of a secure nation, a just society, a peaceful world, a strong America, confident and proud and united. And we have a memory of Franklin Roosevelt 40 years ago when he said that there are times in our history when concern over our personal lives are overshadowed by our concern over what will happen to the country we have known. This is such a time.

[CHEERING]

And I can tell you that the choice to be made this year can transform our own personal lives and the life of our country as well. During the last presidential campaign, I crisscrossed this country. And I listened to thousands and thousands of people, housewives and farmers, teachers and small business leaders, workers and students, the elderly and the poor, people of every race and every background and every walk of life.

It was a powerful experience, a total immersion in the human reality of America. And I've now had another kind of total immersion-- being president of the United States of America. Let me talk for a moment about what that job is like and what I've learned from it.

I've learned that only the most complex and difficult tasks come before me in the Oval Office. No easy answers are found there because no easy questions come there. I've learned that for a president, experience is the best guide to the right decisions. I'm wiser tonight than I was four years ago.

[CHEERING]

And I have learned that the presidency is a place of compassion. My own heart is burdened for the troubled Americans, the poor and the jobless and the afflicted. They become part of me. My thoughts and my prayers for our hostages in Iran are as though they were my own sons and daughters.

[CHEERING]

The life of every human being on Earth can depend on the experience and judgment and vigilance of the person in the Oval Office. The president's power for building and his power for destruction are awesome. And the power is greatest exactly where the stakes are highest-- in matters of war and peace.

And I've learned something else, something that I have come to see with extraordinary clarity. Above all, I must look ahead because the president of the United States is a steward of the nation's destiny. He must protect our children and the children they will have and the children of generations to follow.

He must speak and act for them. That is his burden and his glory. And that is why a president cannot yield to the shortsighted demands, no matter how rich or powerful those special interests might be that make those demands.

[CHEERING]

And that's why our president cannot bend to the passions of the moment however popular they might be. And that's why the president must sometimes ask for sacrifice when his listeners would rather hear the promise of comfort. The president is a servant of today. But his true constituency is the future. That's why the election of 1980 is so important.

[CHEERING]

Some have said, it makes no difference who wins this election. They are wrong!

[CHEERING]

This election is a stark choice between two men, two parties, two sharply different pictures of what America is and what the world is. But it's more than that. It's a choice between two futures.

[CHEERING]

The year 2000 is just less than 20 years away, just four presidential elections after this one. Children born this year will come of age in the 21st century. The time to shape the year of the-- the world of the year 2000 is now. The decisions of the next few years will set our course, perhaps an irreversible course. And the most important of all choices will be made by the American people at the polls less than three months from tonight.

[CHEERING]

The choice could not be more clear, nor the consequences more crucial. And one of the futures we can choose, the future that you and I have been building together, I see security and justice and peace. I see a future of economic security, security that will come from tapping our own great resources of oil and gas, coal and sunlight, and from building the tools and technology and factories for a revitalized economy, based on jobs and stable prices for everyone!

[CHEERING]

And I see a future of justice, the justice of good jobs, decent health care, quality education, a full opportunity for all people regardless of color or language or religion, the simple human justice of equal rights for all men and for all women, guaranteed equal rights at last under the constitution of the United States of America.

[CHEERING]

And I see a future of peace, a peace born of wisdom and based on a fairness toward all countries of the world, a peace guaranteed both by American military strength and by American moral strength as well.

[CHEERING]

That is a future I want for all people, a future of confidence and hope and a good life. It's a future America must choose. And with your help and with your commitment, it is the future of America will choose.

[CHEERING]

But there's another possible future. In that other future, I see despair, despair of millions. They would struggle for equal opportunity and a better life and struggle alone. And I see surrender, the surrender of our energy future to the merchants of oil, the surrender of our economic future to a bizarre program of massive tax cuts for the rich, service cuts for the poor, and massive inflation for everyone.

And I see risk, the risk of international confrontation, the risk of an uncontrollable, unaffordable, and unwinnable nuclear arms race.

[CHEERING]

No one, Democrat or Republican either, consciously seeks such a future. And I do not claim that my opponent does. But I do question the disturbing commitments and policies already made by him and by those with him, who have now captured control of the Republican Party.

[CHEERING]

The consequences of those commitments and policies would drive us down the wrong road. It's up to all of us to make sure America rejects this alarming and even perilous destiny. The only way, the only way to build a better future is to start with the realities of the present.

But while we Democrats grapple with the real challenges of a real world, others talk about a world of tinsel and make-believe. Let's look for a moment at the make-believe world. In their fantasy America, inner city people and farm workers and laborers do not exist. Women, like children, are to be seen but not heard.

[CHEERING]

The problems of working women are simply ignored. The elderly do not need Medicare. The young do not need more help in getting a better education. Workers do not require the guarantee of a healthy and a safe place to work.

In their fantasy world, all the complex global changes of the world since-- of the world since World War II have never happened. In their fantasy America, all problems have simple solutions-- simple and wrong.

[CHEERING]

It's a make-believe world, a world of good guys and bad guys, where some politicians shoot first and ask questions later.

[CHEERING]

No hard choices. No sacrifice. No tough decisions. It sounds too good to be true. And it is.

[CHEERING]

The path of fantasy leads to irresponsibility. The path of reality leads to hope and peace. The two paths could not be more different, nor could the futures to which they lead. Let's take a hard look at the consequences of our choice.

You and I have been working toward a more secure future by rebuilding our military strength steadily, carefully, and responsibly. The Republicans talk about military strength. But they were in office for 8 out of the last 11 years. And in the face of a growing Soviet threat, they steadily cut real defense spending by more than a third.

[CHEERING]

We reversed the Republican decline in defense. Every year since I've been president, we've had real increases in our commitment to a stronger nation, increases which are prudent and rational. There is no doubt that the United States of America can meet any threat from the Soviet Union.

[CHEERING]

Our modernized strategic forces, a revitalized NATO, the Trident submarine, the cruise missile, rapid deployment force-- all these guarantee that we will never be second to any nation.

[CHEERING]

Deeds not words, fact not fiction. We must and we will continue to build our own defenses. We must and we will continue to seek balanced reductions in nuclear arms.

[CHEERING]

The new leaders of the Republican Party, in order to close the gap between their rhetoric and their record, have now promised to launch an all-out nuclear arms race. This would negate any further effort to negotiate a strategic arms limitation agreement. There can be no winners in such an arms race. And all the people of the Earth can be the losers.

[CHEERING]

The Republican nominee advocates abandoning arms control policies, which have been important and supported by every Democratic president since Harry Truman and also by every Republican president since Dwight D. Eisenhower. This radical and irresponsible course would threaten our security and could put the whole world in peril. You and I must never let this come to pass.

[CHEERING]

It's simple to call for a new arms race. But when armed aggression threatens world peace, though, tough-sounding talk like that is not enough. A president must act responsibly. When Soviet troops invaded Afghanistan, we moved quickly to take action. I suspended some grain sales to the Soviet Union. I called for draft registration. We joined wholeheartedly with the Congress.

[CROWD BOOING]

[CHEERING]

And I joined wholeheartedly with the Congress and with the US Olympic Committee and led more than 60 other nations in boycotting the big propaganda show in Russia, the Moscow Olympics.

[CHEERING]

The Republican leader opposed two of these forceful but peaceful actions. And he waffled on the third. But when we asked-- when we asked him what he would do about aggression in Southwest Asia, he suggested blockading Cuba.

[LAUGHTER]

Even his running mate wouldn't go along with that.

[LAUGHTER]

[CHEERING]

He doesn't seem to know what to do with the Russians. He's not sure if he wants to feed them or play with them or fight with them.

[CHEERING]

As I look back in my first term, I'm grateful that we've had a country for the full four years of peace.

[CHEERING]

And that's what we're going to have for the next four years-- peace.

[CHEERING]

It's only common sense that if America is to stay secure and at peace, we must encourage others to be peaceful as well. As you know, we've helped in Zimbabwe, Rhodesia, where we stood firm for racial justice and democracy. And we have also helped--

[CHEERING]

And we have also helped in the Middle East. Some have criticized the Camp David Accords. And they've criticized some delays in the implementation of the Middle East peace treaty. Well before I became president, there was no Camp David Accords. And there was no Middle East peace treaty.

[CHEERING]

[CHANTING]

Thank you. Before Camp David-- before Camp David, Israel and Egypt were poised across barbed wire, confronting each other with guns and tanks and planes. But afterward, they talked face to face with each other across a peace table. And they also communicated through their own ambassadors in Cairo and Tel Aviv.

Now that's the kind of future we are offering, a peace to the Middle East if the Democrats are reelected in the fall.

[CHEERING]

I am very proud that nearly half the aid that our country has ever given to Israel in the 32 years of her existence has come during my administration.

[CHEERING]

Unlike our Republican predecessors, we have never stopped nor slowed that aid to Israel. And as long as I am president, we will never do so.

[CHEERING]

Our commitment is clear, security and peace for Israel, peace for all the peoples of the Middle East. But if the world is to have a future of freedom as well as peace, America must continue to defend human rights.

[CHEERING]

Now, listen to this. The new Republican leaders oppose our human rights policy. They want to scrap it. They seem to think it's naive for America to stand up to freedom and for freedom and democracy. Just what do they think we should stand up for?

[CHEERING]

Ask the former political prisoners who now live in freedom if we should abandon our stand on human rights. Ask the dissidents in the Soviet Union about our commitment to human rights. Ask the Hungarian Americans. Ask the Polish Americans.

Listen to Pope John Paul II. Ask those who are suffering for the sake of justice and liberty around the world. Ask the millions who fled tyranny if America should stop speaking out for human principles.

Ask the American people . I tell you that as long as I am president, we will hold high the banner of human rights. And you can depend on it.

[CHEERING]

Here at home-- here at home, the choice between the two futures is equally important. In the long run, nothing is more crucial to the future of America than energy. Nothing was so disastrously neglected in the past. Long after the 1973 Arab oil embargo, the Republicans in the White House had still done nothing to meet the threat to national security of our nation. Then as now, their policy was dictated by the big oil companies.

[CHEERING]

We Democrats fought hard to rally our nation behind a comprehensive energy policy and a good program, a new foundation for challenging and exciting progress. Now, after three years of struggle, we have that program. The battle to secure America's energy future has been fully and finally joined. Americans have cooperated with dramatic results.

We've reversed decades of dangerous and growing dependence on foreign oil. We are now importing 20% less oil. That is 1.5 million barrels of oil every day less than the day I took office.

[CHEERING]

And with our new energy policy now in place, we can discover more, produce more, create more, and conserve more energy. And we will use American resources, American technology, and millions of American workers to do it with.

[CHEERING]

Now, what do the Republicans propose? Basically, their energy program has two parts. The first part is to get rid of almost everything that we've done for the American public in the last three years. They want to reduce or abolish the synthetic fuels program. They want to the solar energy incentives, the conservation programs, aid to mass transit, aid to elderly Americans to help pay their fuel bills.

They want to eliminate the 55-mile speed limit. And while they're at it, the Republicans would like to get-- to gut the Clean Air Act. They never liked it to begin with.

[CHEERING]

That's one part of the program. The other part is worse. To replace what we have built, this is what they propose-- to destroy the windfall profits tax and to unleash the oil companies and let them solve the energy problem for us. That's it.

[CROWD BOOING]

That's it. That's the whole program. There is no more. Can this nation accept such an outrageous program?

AUDIENCE: No!

JIMMY CARTER: No. We Democrats will fight it every step of the way. And we'll begin tomorrow morning when we campaign for reelection in November.

[CHEERING]

When I took office, I inherited a heavy load of serious economic problems besides energy. And we've met them all head on. We've slashed government regulation and put free enterprise back in the airlines, the trucking and the financial systems of our country. And we're now doing the same thing for the railroads. This is the greatest change in the relationship between government and business since the New Deal.

[CHEERING]

We've increased our exports dramatically. We reversed a decline in the basic research and development. And we have created more than 8 million new jobs, the biggest increase in the history of our country.

[CHEERING]

But the road's bumpy. And last year's skyrocketing OPEC price increases has helped to trigger a worldwide inflation crisis. We took forceful action. And interest rates have now fallen. The dollar is stable. And although we still have a battle on our hands, we are struggling to bring inflation under control.

We are now at a critical point, a turning point, in the economic history of our country. But because we made the hard decisions, because we have guided our nation and its economy through a rough but essential period of transition, we've laid the groundwork for a new economic age.

Our economic renewal program for the 1980s will meet our immediate need for jobs and attack the very same long range problems that caused unemployment and inflation in the first place. It will move America simultaneously towards our five great economic goals-- lower inflation, better productivity, revitalization of American industry, energy security, and jobs.

[CHEERING]

It's time to put all America back to work, but not in make-work in real work.

[CHEERING]

And there is real work in modernizing American industries, in creating new industries for America as well. Here are just a few things we will rebuild together and build together, new industries to turn our own coal and shale and farm products into fuel for our cars and trucks and to turn the light of the sun into heat and electricity for our homes.

[CHEERING]

A modern transportation system of railbeds and ports, to make American coal into a powerful rival of OPEC oil.

[CHEERING]

Industries that will provide the convenience of futuristic computer technology and communications to serve millions of American homes and offices and factories, job training for workers displaced by economic changes, new investment pinpointed in regions and communities where jobs are needed most, better mass transit in our cities and in between cities, and a whole new generation of American jobs to make homes and vehicles and buildings that will house us and move us in comfort with a lot less energy.

[CHEERING]

And this is important, too. I have no doubt that the ingenuity and dedication of the American people can make every single one of these things happen. We are talking about the United States of America.

[CHEERING]

And those who count this country out as an economic superpower are going to find out just how wrong they are.

[CHEERING]

We're going to share an exciting enterprise of making the 1980s a time of growth for America. The Republican alternative is the biggest tax giveaway in history. They call it Reagan-Kemp-Roth. I call it a free lunch that Americans cannot afford. The Republican tax program offers rebates to the rich, deprivation for the poor, and fierce inflation for all of us.

[CHEERING]

Their party's own vice presidential nominee said that Reagan-Kemp-Roth would result in an inflation rate of more than 30%. He called it voodoo economics.

[CHEERING]

He suddenly changed his mind toward the end of the Republican convention. But he was right the first time.

[CHEERING]

Along with this gigantic tax cut, the new Republican leaders promised to protect retirement and health programs and to have massive increases in defense spending. And they claim they can balance the budget.

If they are serious about these promises-- and they say they are-- then a close analysis shows that the entire rest of the government would have to be abolished, everything from education to farm programs, from a GI bill to the night watchman at the Lincoln Memorial. And the budget would still be in the red.

[CHEERING]

The only alternative would be to build more printing presses the print cheap money. Either way, the American people lose. But the American people will not stand for it.

[CHEERING]

The Democratic Party has always embodied the hope of our people for justice, opportunity, and a better life. And we've worked in every way possible to strengthen the American family, to encourage self-reliance, and to follow the Old Testament admonition, "Defend the poor and the fatherless. Give justice to the afflicted and needy."

We've struggled to assure that no child in America ever goes to bed hungry, that no elderly couple in America has to live in a substandard home, and that no young person in America is excluded from college because the family is poor.

[CHEERING]

But what have the Republicans proposed? Just an attack on everything that we've done in the achievement of social justice and decency that we've won in the last 50 years ever since Franklin Delano Roosevelt's first term. They would make Social Security voluntary. They would reverse our progress in the minimum wage, full employment laws, safety in the workplace, and a healthy environment.

Lately, as you know, the Republicans have been quoting Democratic presidents. But who can blame them? Would you rather quote Herbert Hoover or Franklin Delano Roosevelt?

[CHEERING]

Would you rather quote Richard Nixon or John Fitzgerald Kennedy?

[CHEERING]

The Republicans have always been the party of privilege. But this year, their leaders have gone even further. In their platform, they have repudiated the best traditions of their own party. Where is the conscience of Lincoln in the party of Lincoln? What's become of a traditional Republican commitment to fiscal responsibility? What's happened to their commitment to a safe and sane arms control?

Now, I don't claim perfection for the Democratic Party. I don't claim that every decision that we have made has been right or popular. Certainly, they've not all been easy. But I will say. This we've been tested under fire. We've neither ducked nor hidden.

[CHEERING]

And we've tackled the great central issues of our time, the historic challenges of peace and energy, which have been ignored for years. We've made tough decisions. And we've taken the heat for them. We've made mistakes. And we've learned from them.

But we have built the foundation now for a better future. We've done something else, perhaps even more important. In good times and bad, in the valleys and on the peaks, we've told people the truth, the hard truth--

[CHEERING]

--the truth that sometimes hurts. One truth that we Americans have learned is that our dream has been earned for progress and for peace. Look what our land has been through within our own memory-- a Great Depression, a World War, the technological explosion, the civil rights revolution, the bitterness of Vietnam, the shame of Watergate, the twilight peace of nuclear terror.

Through each of these momentous experiences, we've learned the hard way about the world and about ourselves. But we've matured and we've grown as a nation. And we've grown stronger.

We've learned the uses and the limitations of power. We've learned the beauty and responsibility of freedom. We've learned the value and the obligation of justice. And we have learned the necessity of peace.

Some would argue that to master these lessons is somehow to limit our potential. That is not so. A nation which knows its true strength, which sees its true challenges, which understands legitimate constraints, that nation, our nation, is far stronger than one which takes refuge in wishful thinking or nostalgia.

[CHEERING]

The Democratic Party, the American people have understood these fundamental truths. All of us can sympathize with the desire for easy answers. There's often a temptation to substitute idle dreams for hard reality. The new Republican leaders are hoping that our nation will succumb to that temptation this year. But they profoundly misunderstand and underestimate the character of the American people.

[CHEERING]

Three weeks after Pearl Harbor, Winston Churchill came to North America. And he said, we have journeyed all this way-- "We've not journeyed all this way across the centuries, across the oceans, across the mountains, across the prairies because we are made of sugar candy."

We Americans have courage. Americans have always been on the cutting edge of change. We've always looked forward with anticipation and confidence. I still want all-- the same thing that all of you want, a self-reliant neighborhood, strong families, work for the able-bodied and good medical care for the sick, opportunity for our youth and dignity for our old, equal rights and justice for all people. I want teachers eager to explain what a civilization really is.

[CHEERING]

And I want students to understand their own needs and their own aims but also the needs and yearnings of their neighbors. I want women free to pursue without limit, the full life of what they want for themselves.

[CHEERING]

s

I want our farmers growing crops to feed our nation and the world, secure in the knowledge that the family farm will thrive and with a fair return on the good work they do for all of us. I want workers to see meaning in the labor they perform and work enough to guarantee a job for every worker in this country.

[CHEERING]

And I want the people in business free to pursue a bold and freedom-- boldness and freedom, new ideas. And I want minority citizens fully to join the mainstream of American life. And I want, from the bottom of my heart, to remove the blight of racial and other discrimination from the face of our nation. And I'm determined to do it.

[CHEERING]

I need for all of you to join me in fulfilling that vision. The choice, the choice between the two futures could not be more clear. If we succumb to a dream world, then we will wake up to a nightmare. But if we start with reality and fight to make our dreams a reality, then Americans will have a good life, a life of meaning and purpose in a nation that's strong and secure.

[CHEERING]

Above all, I want us to be what the founders of our nation meant us to become-- the land of freedom, the land of peace, and a land of hope. Thank you very much. Let's get over there.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

LINDA WERTHEIMER: President Carter delivering a speech, which lasted more than 40 minutes. The demonstration is beginning. We're watching the--

SANDY UNGAR: The balloons seem to be stuck, Linda.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: We're watching the attempt to release the balloons. And it just isn't working.

SANDY UNGAR: Ah, here they go.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Here they go.

SANDY UNGAR: A few of them anyway.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: The net-- the net which is holding the balloons up won't come down. The balloons are beginning to drift.

SANDY UNGAR: So they're sort of dribbling out.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Yes. Red, white, and blue spotlights are playing around the crowd from a set of wheeling spotlights that are on either side of the podium.

SANDY UNGAR: One half of the balloons seemed not to be shaking loose at all. In the other side, they're coming down. From where we sit, the left side's balloons are coming down but not the ones on the right.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Mrs. Carter has joined the president on the platform.

SANDY UNGAR: And vice president and Mrs. Mondale as well.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: On the other side, yes, waving.

SANDY UNGAR: "Happy Days are Here again" being played by the band.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: And now, the two families are standing together.

JOHN SEARS: This does raise the question as to whether a party that can't even drop a few balloons be able to govern this country.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Thank you, John.

JOHN SEARS: [LAUGHS]

SANDY UNGAR: There you go, the other balloons now.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: There's a cheer from the crowd as the beginning of the balloon dropped.

SANDY UNGAR: --balloons dropped on that side.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: I should imagine this is an embarrassing moment for somebody.

JOHN SEARS: Yes, that's right.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: And it is sort of taking the attention of the crowd away from the business of demonstrating. And they were all looking up to see if it's going to be possible to release these--

SANDY UNGAR: It's quite a scene--

LINDA WERTHEIMER: --mischievous balloons that won't come down and fall.

SANDY UNGAR: Maybe more obvious from where we are than from the floor, but these--

LINDA WERTHEIMER: I'm sure it is. And we probably shouldn't act as though it dominates the event because we are right at eye level with it so we're looking right at it. And the crowd below has to look up to see it. And most of them are looking at the president, who has now been joined by his daughter Amy.

SANDY UNGAR: The Mondales have been joined by their three children. And the spotlights are--

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Eleanor, Teddy, and William, the little Mondales. Ms. Lillian Carter, the president's mother, has just embraced her son, the president. And here come the rest of the Carter children. President Carter has almost two families, I suppose you'd say.

He has three older sons. And then he has his younger daughter Amy. The president is holding his granddaughter Sarah in his arms.

SANDY UNGAR: Linda, we've just learned that--

LINDA WERTHEIMER: --her up to the microphones where she can see the crowd, and the crowd can see her.

SANDY UNGAR: We just learned that Senator Edward Kennedy has left the Waldorf Hotel to come to Madison Square Garden. He, too, should have a fairly quick passage through the streets of New York. But that must mean that they expect a demonstration to go on for some time until he gets here to join the president and vice president on the platform.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: "Hava Nagila" is the music that we hear the orchestra playing. We're still getting sort of slow drifts of balloons, usually falling down just a few at a time as they roll out of the sections that have been released. The national dance of Israel, "Hava Nagila," one might think it would inspire this crowd to begin to dance through the aisles. Even if it did inspire them to do it, they'd have a hard time.

SANDY UNGAR: I don't think there's a single aisle that's not blocked down there. I don't know what the fire regulations say about the number of people on the floor of Madison Square Garden. But there doesn't seem to be an inch of space to move in down there.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: The Carter grandchildren taking a look. And a tiny boy is waving. I identified him earlier as James Earl Carter. And I believe that may be Jason Carter, who is the child of Jack Carter. James Earl Carter is the son of Chip, who has the same name as his father as well.

SANDY UNGAR: Now a sort of rock music, it's a little different from the usual music for these demonstrations.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Well, I hate to say it because I've been saying it so often about John Sears getting it right.

SANDY UNGAR: There it goes--

LINDA WERTHEIMER: He's been saying all along that the Democrats are not as good at balloons as the Republicans were. And they don't seem to be. There's a tremendous crowd on the platform now-- Mrs. Carter, clapping in time with the music, waving to the crowd.

I see all three Carter sons, Jack Carter holding his daughter Sarah, a little boy standing down at the front, Amy Carter with her nephew, who is only a little bit younger than she is, a few years. President is talking to Robert Strauss and to Walter Mondale.

We have a little bit of information about what's been going on outside the Hall. There have been some demonstrations, nothing terribly large but apparently something fairly violent. Dozens of delegates and reporters have been kept out of this hall tonight.

There were provisional credentials issued for a session tomorrow, which may or may not take place, which was not necessarily going to take place. And the credentials for tomorrow's session were released today, which means that a tremendous number of people were able to get into the hall.

And everyone who did not arrive by 9:45 did not get in. So there are delegates and people who are properly credentialed who were not able to come into this speech. And there was apparently a certain amount of crowding and hostility in the hallway outside. You can hear a little bit of--

SPEAKER 1: This is KSJN, Minneapolis, St. Paul. Local coverage of the Democratic National Convention is made possible with a grant from the Minneapolis Star. Now back to New York.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Scott Simon is standing by to tell us what happened at those demonstrations that were going on outside Madison Square Garden. There were some police were injured. There was a little-- there was a disturbance. Scott Simon, what happened?

SCOTT SIMON: I wish it hadn't begun quite that way. Sometimes when you're in the middle of something like that-- and we came in the middle of the aftermath here in the least best position to observe exactly what happened-- the wire copy tells us that six demonstrators were injured. It was a demonstration.

The first one we're talking about was mounted by people that identified themselves as members of the Communist Workers Party. People at least in the front rows were wearing some kind of hard helmets and carrying some sort of clubs. Six policemen were also hurt. There's a great deal of dispute obviously as to who started what.

To the second part of it, we know that about 15 delegates were turned away and were denied entrance to the hall. The number of reporters, we're not certain of. And of course, then, about 40 delegates and people we'll call hangers-on walked out of the hall and had a very brief demonstration on the steps of the post office right across from the Garden here. So there are all those three separate elements that are playing together.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: But none of it amounting to much. Right, Scott? Except for those-- except for the--

SCOTT SIMON: Certainly the people who say that they were hurt by the police wouldn't say that.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Well, (STAMMERING) I--

SCOTT SIMON: And then they were--

LINDA WERTHEIMER: You're absolutely right. I was just saying that it's not a large demonstration, although it was obviously--

SCOTT SIMON: No, it--

LINDA WERTHEIMER: --disorderly and dangerous for some people.

SCOTT SIMON: No, it by no means was large from that viewpoint, although we came across an interesting statistic earlier this evening. The number of demonstrators, however you define that term, that have been produced here at Madison Square Garden for this convention are about equal in number to the famous one in 1968 in Chicago. And yet of, course, there's been nothing representing the same scale of injury or outrage that happened there. That statistic has been quoted to the benefit of the police certainly and the New York Police and the way they've handled that.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Well, Scott, we're going to ask you to keep an eye on the part outside the hall, see if anything else goes on. And we're coming back inside the hall, where the governor of California has just arrived and is standing on the platform with the president and with Robert Strauss, Vice President Mondale.

Robert Strauss has just extended the-- his hand to Robert Byrd, the majority leader of the Senate, asked him to come to the platform. Congressman Morris Udall, who was the keynote speaker at this convention, Robert Strauss is calling him.

SANDY UNGAR: Linda, in 1976, apparently Robert Strauss called so many people up to the podium that it started to sway and almost collapsed.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: [LAUGHS]

SANDY UNGAR: He called up mayors, city councilors, all sorts of people in 1976. And it certainly seems that he's extending lots of invitations now-- senators with seniority--

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Warren Magnuson, Tip O'Neill-- let's go down and listen to this.

ROBERT STRAUSS: Governor Bob Graham of Florida.

[CHEERING]

Congressman Brademas of Indiana.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Governor Graham nominated President Carter.

ROBERT STRAUSS: --of Connecticut.

[CHEERING]

[INAUDIBLE]

JOHN SEARS: I really don't think this is a very good idea. They're interrupting the emotion that they have generated on the floor here a little bit. And I would have thought they'd like to let that roll for a while until Mr. Kennedy gets here. When he does, of course, it will start up again.

But the theories of these things are basically that once started, you don't want to stop for anything. It's hard to get people up into high gear twice in one night.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Let's go down to the hall again. Robert Strauss, the president's campaign chairman, is inviting all sorts of people to join them on the platform.

ROBERT STRAUSS: --Mario Cuomo of New York.

[CHEERING]

Governor Brendan Byrne of New Jersey.

[CHEERING]

Congressman Tom Foley of Washington and Mayor Tom Bradley of Los Angeles-- come here, Tom Bradley.

[CHEERING]

And Mayor Hatcher of Gary, Indiana, and Mayor Maynard Jackson of Atlanta, and Mayor Green of Philadelphia, Billy Green, Governor Winter.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: There's a regular parade now of all of the Democratic officials, officeholders, a tremendous number of people on the platform now in a show of unity, a colorful display. Down in the front of the podium, we see the first lady, the daughter of the vice president, Eleanor Mondale, the president's daughters and their children standing in the front, and behind them, a sea of Democratic elected officials.

When the Democratic Party chooses to show off its elected officials, it has quite a few to show off. Senator Glenn, Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan joining Senator Bill Bradley of New Jersey, who's been in Madison Square Garden quite a bit in his career.

JOHN SEARS: [LAUGHS]

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Not necessarily in the role of a Senator.

SANDY UNGAR: Andy Young was just called up, the former ambassador to the United Nations.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: A member of Congress from Georgia, as he was a close friend of the president's. The crowd is--

ROBERT STRAUSS: Ed Koch of New York is here.

[CHEERING]

SANDY UNGAR: Mayor of New York, Ed Koch, just called up and he seems to have some--

LINDA WERTHEIMER: He's getting a bit of a mixed reception.

SANDY UNGAR: There are mixed emotions from this crowd.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Coretta Scott King, the widow of Martin Luther King. We're looking-- as we look at this convention, we can see the dignitaries coming around at the top, around the top aisles, down behind the podium and down to where they can join the president and the vice president on the platform.

Mrs. King embraces President Carter. Her father-in-law Martin Luther King will deliver the benediction this evening as he did in '76.

SANDY UNGAR: That was a very emotional moment in 1976, when he gave this benediction, moved a lot of people to tears in fact.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Governor Richard Riley was chairman of the committee that drafted the platform. Governor King of the State of Massachusetts. We're going to go down to Nina Totenberg, who is at the entrance to the hall. Nina?

NINA TOTENBERG: Yes, Linda. I'm standing on a table just outside the Carter-Mondale trailer. Senator Kennedy has just arrived in a limousine. There's a small crowd here applauding him. He just got out of the car, escorted by a group of people, and walked up the ramp to go behind the podium.

And so I would imagine in just a matter of a few seconds, he'll be out there hand in hand with President Carter. Back to you, Linda.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Thank you very much, Nina Totenberg, who's in the hall. Let's go down and listen to Robert Strauss welcoming Democrats to the platform.

ROBERT STRAUSS: Where's Mayor Dianne Feinstein? She was up here a minute ago. Mayor Feinstein? And we're still looking for the president's cabinet. Congressman Parren Mitchell of Maryland.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

AUDIENCE: (CHANTING) We want Ted. We want Ted. We want Ted. We want Ted.

ROBERT STRAUSS: And the members of the president's cabinet.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Chants of, we want Ted.

AUDIENCE: (CHANTING) We want Ted. We want Ted. We want Ted.

SANDY UNGAR: They're going to get Ted very soon as Nina Totenberg has just told us he's arrived at the hall.

AUDIENCE: (CHANTING) We want Ted. We want Ted. We want Ted.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Members of the president's cabinet, Secretary of Transportation Goldschmidt, I see Secretary of State Muskie, the Secretary of the Treasury, William Miller.

SANDY UNGAR: Secretary of Defense Brown.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Joshua Roberts Harris, secretary of House and Urban Development, Secretary of Agriculture Robert Bergland, Secretary of Energy, I see, Head of the Office of Management and Budget.

ROBERT STRAUSS: And Ambassador Reubin Askew, former governor of Florida. Charles Duncan, the Secretary of Energy, Director of OMB, Mr. Jim McIntyre, and Ambassador Henry of the UN.

SANDY UNGAR: It's a veritable parade of people who worked for the president-- Lloyd Cutler, his council, speaking of Brzezinski, his national security advisor.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: He's getting a rather negative reception from this crowd.

JOHN SEARS: It's one of the risks of doing what they're doing here tonight. But it's generally a good idea.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Such a crowd on the platform now, you wonder where anybody-- any of the new arrivals are ever going to find a place to stand.

ROBERT STRAUSS: --from the state of Louisiana, we have Moon Landrieu.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Moon Landrieu.

SANDY UNGAR: It's very crowded up there.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: He's from the state of Louisiana.

ROBERT STRAUSS: [INAUDIBLE]

[CLAMORING]

SANDY UNGAR: Donald McHenry, the ambassador to the UN is there.

AUDIENCE: (CHANTING) We want Ted. We want Ted. We want Ted. We want Ted.

[CHEERING]

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Senator Edward M. Kennedy. He's preceded by the Secret Service agents, who are still protecting him. And here he is-- now the crowd can see him so you could see-- you could hear the cheers-- walking up the steps. Of course, there's a tremendous crowd. He will be little bit difficult to see, shaking hands with Mrs. Carter, greeting Amy Carter and the president.

President puts his arm around Senator Kennedy. And the two of them talking to Tip O'Neill, the chairman of this convention, who has his arm around Senator Kennedy, his old friend and colleague from the state of Massachusetts. Now the president has stepped to the microphone with Vice President Mondale, reaching out his hand to Senator Kennedy, shaking hands with Tip O'Neill standing between them.

SANDY UNGAR: Senator Kennedy has a very serious look on his face.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Now we have Governor Brown, Senator Kennedy, Tip O'Neill, the president, the vice president all lined up. President is whispering in Fritz Mondale's ear, two of them are smiling over something. Another handshake between the president and Senator Kennedy, who greets Mrs. Mondale, Mayor Tom Bradley of Los Angeles.

Some of the dignitaries and officeholders on the platform are all reaching forward to shake hands with Senator Kennedy.

SANDY UNGAR: Any number of these other Democratic officeholders are likely to get their pictures taken in some fairly historic photographs while they're up there, can't do their careers any harm.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Senator Kennedy is standing himself at the side of the platform. Mrs. Carter is just behind him, shaking his hand. And she appears to be urging him forward toward the president. I believe that's Governor Brown of Kentucky. Yes, it is.

[CHEERING]

Senator Kennedy is leaving the platform, as are just about all the other Democratic dignitaries, officeholders, cabinet officials, members of the president's staff. He's moving through the crowd while the president, the vice president, the first lady, Mrs. Mondale, and Amy Carter remain in the center, waving to the crowd.

SANDY UNGAR: Amy didn't know whether to stay or not. She's finally walked away from her little group.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: And everybody's walking around, looking at their--

SANDY UNGAR: Now back again.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: --waving. I wonder what it must be like to stand down there and hear all that sound rushing up towards you. I would think it must be an exciting moment.

JOHN SEARS: It really is. You can't really appreciate how it does sound down there up here.

[CHEERING]

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Senator Kennedy has returned to the platform.

JOHN SEARS: It really is a moving experience down there as you look out at the crowd like this and feel the noise coming up to you.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Now Senator Kennedy leaves again. The first family and the second family, standing on the platform, spotlights playing around the crowd, which seems to have become relatively quiet for a moment. And here comes Martin Luther King.

SANDY UNGAR: It's been 20 minutes since the president's speech ended.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Martin Luther King, the father of Martin Luther King Jr. His daughter-in-law Coretta Scott King was one of the people who seconded the president's nomination. Daddy King, as he is called, will deliver the benediction.

SANDY UNGAR: A repeat performance of four years ago.

THOMAS P. O'NEILL: It is a distinct honor for me to recognize the Reverend Martin Luther King Senior of the Ebenezer Baptist Church of Atlanta, who will close these proceedings with benediction.

MARTIN LUTHER KING: The Lord is in his Holy Temple. Let all Earth keep silence before him. Wherever we are walking, God would like to speak to you. This is our Father's word. All of us are his children. May we now come to a serious moment everywhere.

The president of our country, the vice president of our country, I preach tonight. And we gladly accept and follow. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord lift up the light of his countenance upon you and give you peace now and always. Amen.

AUDIENCE: Amen.

[CHEERING]

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Let's listen to the music and to the final cheers. "We Shall Overcome," Martin Luther King Senior, his daughter-in-law Coretta Scott King, seconded President Carter's nomination, the president and his wife standing arm and arm, swaying to the music. Tip O'Neill, the speaker of the House, chairman of this convention, is standing at the podium. The Carters are singing. The Mondales are, too.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

The president and the vice president have left the podium. And they're now walking down, greeting the officials of the party and the people who remain at the top-- on the side sections of the podium.

[CHEERING]

Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill is coming back to the block of founders. "Happy Days Are Here Again."

THOMAS P. O'NEILL: --announces that he has a motion from the delegate from New York Congressman Leo Zeferetti. It's that the convention now to adjourn. This is seconded by delegate James Howard from New Jersey. Question is on the motion. Those in favor say aye, opposed, no.

AUDIENCE: Aye.

THOMAS P. O'NEILL: The ayes have it, and the convention stands adjourned. God bless, God speed, and victory go to all of us in November.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: The Democratic Convention has adjourned. God speed and victory in November, the Speaker of the House Thomas P O'Neill leaves the convention, microphones with that admonition. We're going to go downstairs now to Nina Totenberg, who is waiting outside the hall where the president is expected to depart momentarily. Nina?

NINA TOTENBERG: Yes, Linda. Just moments ago, Senator Kennedy came down the exit ramp and gave us all that terrific Irish grin of his and sort of teased us, waved at us. We all yelled, come over here, Senator. And he didn't come over. But he just sort of gave us that teasing look like he might. And then he climbed in his car and left.

Right now, the Secret Service has climbed into the presidential limousine. The motor is on. The lights are on. The flag is-- the American flag is set right on the fender, of course, of the limousine. And we're just waiting for the president to come down the ramp.

I don't know if you can see him still on the podium or not. Everybody here is in readiness to whisk him out. There's a cluster of people around the iron temporary gates that they've set up around these cars. And the cluster is growing into a mob very quickly.

I have stationed myself on top of a table so I can see rather well. For those of you who were with us at the Republican convention, you may recall that I couldn't see anything one day. And I handed the microphone to our 6'6 NPR reporter, Clem Taylor. Well, this time, Clem is not with me. So I've improvised.

And we are just waiting for the president to come off the ramp that leads directly up to the podium.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: We have seen the president-- the president left the platform. And we expect him to leave relatively quickly, Nina. We might say that the crowd will be held here until the president is away. And so they always move him out quickly because in a warm night in a big city, it's very uncomfortable to keep thousands of people standing in the corridors around an arena like Madison Square Garden.

So for all their sakes, the president will leave quickly. And he walked off with a tremendous number of Democratic dignitaries, officeholders, governors, mayors members of Congress. All of the officials of the party who were here were called up to the platform to be with the president in this triumphant moment as he accepts the nomination of his party and outlines his campaign issues and lays the groundwork for the campaign, which is coming up.

He's gone off with all those people, many friends and people who supported and helped him through the year that he's campaigned.

SANDY UNGAR: The podium--

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Nina, we're keeping an ear on you so speak up if you have anything to report.

NINA TOTENBERG: Posing for pictures and waving to the crowd, they're standing in front of the limousine waving, Mrs. Mondale, of course, dressed in a white suit with red trim. And they look very relaxed and happy and a little gesture of the fist. And here comes the vice president. He's going to come over here.

Hold on a second. Let me see if I can put my microphone down. Can you hear it, anything, Linda?

LINDA WERTHEIMER: No, we can't, Nina.

NINA TOTENBERG: Yeah, hold on.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Nina Totenberg is moving in a little closer, giving up her own vantage point so she can dive into this crowd and let us hear what Vice President Mondale is saying as he comes out of this hall. It's been an exciting evening for him and for the president as they accept the nomination, the beginning of a campaign.

President delivered a long and fairly serious speech. Let's go back to Nina Totenberg.

NINA TOTENBERG: Linda, I've outfoxed myself. I'm standing on a table. The vice president is talking to some of my colleagues. But I'm unable to get down close enough to hear what he's saying. And I've got a rather hefty television crew in front of me.

So Mrs. Mondale is nodding her head. If I could find a volunteer-- no, he's left now. Whatever he said, I don't imagine it was crucial. We'll find out tomorrow.

He's going now to his limousine with Mrs. Mondale. As I said, she's dressed in a white suit with red trim. He looks very happy and relaxed. And they're getting into the car. Back to you, Linda.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: The vice president had a very successful evening, I would say. His was a speech, which the crowd here in Madison Square Garden liked very much.

SANDY UNGAR: They responded very enthusiastically. Linda, inside the hall now, the souvenir hunters have begun to strip the bunting away from around the platform of the railing of the seating in Madison Square Garden. It's really quite striking from this vantage point.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: This convention, with its red, white, and blue decorations, is going to be turned back into a place to play basketball--

SANDY UNGAR: That's right.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: --relatively quickly. I suppose it might be hockey by this time.

SANDY UNGAR: They have 11 days now to get Madison Square Garden ready for the next event apparently.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: The Democrats, in order to build all of the tremendous podium, the catacombs underneath it, where all of the security areas are, the platforms for the cameras, the booths for all of us who come here to broadcast from this hall, Madison Square Garden has been occupied by the Democratic convention for just about a month. It takes half of the month to build, a week to hold the convention, and then another 10 days to strike the set.

SANDY UNGAR: Linda, we might talk a little bit about the president's speech, his very long speech that took I believe just over 50 minutes to deliver, nearly an hour. And John Sears, what was your impression of the president's speech?

JOHN SEARS: Well, it was a good speech for this occasion. The president did dramatize his interest in the future. He didn't call attention to a couple of things he was proud of in his record of the last four years but pretty well left that alone, as I think he should.

He didn't really refer to Ronald Reagan. But he referred a lot to the Republicans and raised the specter that under their, quote, "new leadership," some dangerous things might occur, which of course, is a prelude in the more specific I think attacks of the Republicans and Mr. Reagan this fall.

So it was a good speech, went according to plan, and really was realistic in terms of what Mr. Carter's circumstances are for the fall. He must-- well, his job here tonight was to make a good beginning at the campaign. I think he succeeded in that.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: He said during the course of the speech that I have learned that for a president, experience is the best guide to right decisions. I am wiser tonight than I was four years ago, stressing his experience. Let's go down to Nina Totenberg outside the Hall. Nina?

NINA TOTENBERG: Sort of stood halfway up over his car, waved to the crowd, gave a big smile that he's famous for, the car is now moving. Has it gone out? I've now lowered myself so that if he came-- if he came over, I wouldn't miss talking to him. They're moving now, Linda.

The cars with the president and the vice president and Mr. Robert Strauss-- of course, he came out, too-- they're all moving out at a fairly good pace now, down the ramps and out of the garden and through the streets of New York. And pretty soon, we'll all be able to get out of Madison Square Garden. Back to you in the booth.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Thank you very much, Nina Totenberg. When the president moves like this in a motorcade, the traffic is stopped at the cross streets. And the avenue is cleared. The president has a straight shot right up the avenue.

It won't take him but just for a few moments to get where he's going. And then the traffic can begin to move again and the rest of New York City.

SANDY UNGAR: Back to the speech, the president did take one risk in his speech that he would be booed when he mentioned draft registration. And indeed he was booed. He cited it as one of the strong measures he had taken in response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

JOHN SEARS: Well, I'm sure the reason he mentioned it is that all the national public opinion polling I've seen would indicate that it is a popular idea with a majority of the citizens of this country. And so I think he wanted to draw a little bit of a distinction between himself and Mr. Reagan, who opposes registration.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: The president had a paragraph in his speech where he said, when Soviet troops invaded Afghanistan, we moved quickly to take action. I suspended some grain sales to the Soviet Union, called for draft registration, and had joined wholeheartedly by the Congress and the Olympic Committee, led more than 60 other nations in boycotting the big Soviet propaganda show, the Moscow Olympics.

Thereby, folding into five lines three of his most controversial actions-- the grain embargo, draft registration, and the Olympic boycott-- and putting all the parts of the speech where he might expect some negative reaction into one moment.

SANDY UNGAR: That's right. He also-- like Vice President Mondale, President Carter did make a very strong pitch in his acceptance speech for the Jewish vote. He spoke out very strongly in support of Israel. And I think it would be hard to read any equivocation into his remarks in the speech on that point, obviously worried about Ronald Reagan and John Anderson.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: We've been taking the temperature of this party, looking to see if it's going to pull together and work together. Let's go down to the floor where Alan Berlow has Gerard Doherty, who ran the Kennedy campaign in Massachusetts and now says he will be working for President Carter. Alan Berlow.

ALAN BERLOW: Yes, Linda. I'm here with Jerry Doherty. Mr. Doherty, what did you think of the Carter speech tonight? Is this a unifying speech? Is it the kind of thing that's going to bring your Kennedy people in line in the fall campaign?

GERARD DOHERTY: Well, I think he reached out and asked for help. He indicated that a great debt that he had to Senator Kennedy for the speech of the other night, which began to set the tone of accommodation and unification. And I think that the president himself indicated the issues that are important tonight.

And whether you're Kennedy or Carter, it's those issues are important to us as Democrats and as Americans. And as a consequence, I think he began to bring back a lot of people such as myself to be supportive in his efforts.

ALAN BERLOW: Senator Kennedy himself looked a little grim up there on the platform tonight. Do you take that as a rather unenthusiastic endorsement of the president?

GERARD DOHERTY: Well, I think it's been a long, hard year for Senator Kennedy. The very fact that he was here, the very fact that he spoke out, the very fact that he moved to make the nomination unanimous last night would indicate to me that Senator Kennedy is a-- will be supporter of the president.

ALAN BERLOW: Having run some of Senator Kennedy's campaigns, you also worked on Robert Kennedy's campaigns and on campaign strategies, what do you think of the possibilities of Carter carrying some of the large Northeastern states?

GERARD DOHERTY: I think there's a very good possibility. However, I think there's a lot of work that has to be done. And I think that the president himself recognizes it better than anybody. And I think with the demonstration such as he put on here tonight, where he asked for people, tried to bring people back to him, is a good beginning.

ALAN BERLOW: Thanks very much, Mr. Doherty. Back to you, Linda.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: And thank you, Alan Berlow. As we take a look again at the president's speech, one of his-- one of the lines in which the convention cheered tremendously for the president was when he mentioned the Equal Rights Amendment. This is the first Democratic convention where half of the delegates have been women. Their influence has been felt here. And they were obviously well pleased to hear the president endorse a constitutional amendment guaranteeing women's rights.

SANDY UNGAR: Linda, on matters of foreign policy, the president disputed very strongly some elements of the Republican platform and of Ronald Reagan's acceptance speech. He challenged the Republican argument that American strength is becoming inferior to the Soviet's. In fact, President Carter said tonight that the United States is quite capable of besting the Soviet Union anywhere in the world if a challenge should come up.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: This is always an issue, John Sears, as you pointed out, where the president has a considerable advantage in talking about foreign policy.

JOHN SEARS: Well, that's true. Now, he will certainly catch a pretty lively debate on that statement. The Republicans, of course, would take the position that our defense posture has suffered under Mr. Carter's stewardship and actually out in the country, there is great fear that that has happened.

SANDY UNGAR: We might point out that on one of the subjects that has been sort of taboo at this convention, the hostages in Iran, the president did mention them very early on in his speech. He said he had worried about them as if they were his own children. And it seems to have tried to put that behind him right at the beginning of the speech, though he didn't return to the subject later on particularly.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: The president referring to the responsibilities of a president, speaking about the difficult tasks and so on, he said, my thoughts and prayers for our hostages in Iran are as though they were my own sons and daughters. He talked about how his heart is burdened for afflicted Americans.

I was interested to see this section of the speech, which went into a bit of campaign rhetoric I think that we probably will see again, talking about Ronald Reagan's vision of America as a make-believe world. He said, in their fantasy, in their fantasy America-- he called it-- inner city people, farm workers, laborers are forgotten. Women, like children, are seen but not heard.

In their fantasy world, he went on, all the complex global changes since World War II never happened. In their fantasy America, all problems have simple solutions-- simple and wrong. I think we'll hear a great deal more on that theme.

SANDY UNGAR: That's right. In fact, both in President Carter's speech and in Vice President Mondale's speech, there was an attempt to portray many of Ronald Reagan's positions as simplistic, as easy answers that won't work.

JOHN SEARS: The basic irony of, of course, the president's speech in a way is that in 1976, he campaigned and was elected on the basis that since he was not part of the Washington scene and by innuendo was inexperienced, he might be able to take a fresh look at the federal government and do something imaginative and creative with it.

And now here, four years later, he is relying on what he refers to as his experience in office to ask the country to reelect him. And also, he's saying basically that he's a man who has now learned on the job and has-- and should be retained.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: We're hearing a demonstration from the floor. It's--

[CHEERING]

--Walter, for Walter Cronkite.

SANDY UNGAR: This is his last convention before he retires from the anchor of the CBS Evening News. And a lot of the delegates still on the floor were wanting to say goodbye.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: There are two big booths on this side of the hall, one for ABC and one for CBS. And a tremendous number of people have gathered around the CBS booth, big windows looking up at Walter Cronkite. Walter Cronkite is not on the air at the moment, so presumably he's waving to his admirers. And that's what's excited that response.

There still are quite a large number of people left in the hall. And some of them are our floor reporters. Alan Berlow and Nina Totenberg are downstairs. Cokie Roberts has joined us up here.

Let me-- we've just sort of been going through the speech, noting some of the points. John Sears has pronounced it a speech which accomplished the purpose that it was supposed to accomplish. Let's ask for something a little bit more in the way of an emotional response. How did the people on the floor like it? Alan Berlow, you were down there.

ALAN BERLOW: Linda, I was down here. And I was talking to some of the Kennedy people afterwards. They were sitting on their hands for the most part. They were not very emotional about the speech.

I talked to Sergio Bendixen briefly after the speech. He ran Kennedy's-- he was Kennedy's floor manager in Florida. And he seemed to think it was pretty passionless speech. He was much more excited about the Mondale speech. Of course, I think Mondale appeals more to Kennedy supporters than the president does.

It was not an electric scene the way it was when Kennedy spoke the other night. And I don't even think it really came close to the ovation that Vice President Mondale was given. Nina, do you have something to add to that?

NINA TOTENBERG: Just one thing, I wasn't in the middle of-- I was not in the middle of the floor. I was sort of on the fringes. But the only time I could see that there was a sort of a whoosh of emotion is when Kennedy came onto the platform. That was the only time you really saw that. And it was sort of like a lighting a match, and then it went out rather quickly.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: As we watched the convention, listened to the president's speech, there were a tremendous number of applause lines. There were a lot of things in the speech that the crowd liked. It was a long speech. And I think that may have made something of a difference.

But let's continue-- let's continue looking for reviews and responses. Cokie Roberts, what did you think?

COKIE ROBERTS: Well, one thing I'd like to point out about the differences between Kennedy and Carter delegates-- and I've spent a lot of this week talking to delegates. And I've been on the floor [CHUCKLES] many hours and in the hotels talking to them.

And the difference is, in many cases, that the Kennedy delegates are younger. They're involved in politics, many of them, for the first time. And often, they've come to this convention because they're very concerned about a specific issue and maybe about Ted Kennedy, just sort of as a man that excites them.

You have among the Carter delegates a different breed. You have people who tend to be older, have been more active in Democratic Party politics for a longer period of time. Many of them are party officeholders themselves. After all, this is an incumbent president running.

And so you're not going to have, just by the nature of the delegates, the kind of demonstration for an incumbent president as you do for the, quote, unquote, "youthful challenger." That's just the nature of this particular convention. So I think we have to--

LINDA WERTHEIMER: And we also have, Cokie, a president who came from the outside to take his office, who has had a relationship with Congress, which has been a difficult one. But when he decided to stand for reelection, most of the regular Democrats around the country stood with him.

And there may not have been the kind of passionate support that President Carter had on the first round or that Senator Kennedy had from some of the people here on this round, but that support is a solid regular Democratic support. And it was there for the president. It put him over the top. They cheered in a lot of the right places, even though there were some moments of protest in the speech.

The president, as he went through this speech, talked about his foreign policy accomplishments. He talked about four years of peace.

SANDY UNGAR: Listen. Linda, he was very strong to point out that the Camp David agreement had been reached while he was president, that four years ago, Israel and Egypt were still pointing guns at each other. And now they were exchanging ambassadors.

He played very much on that, which has been cited by many of his foreign policy people as singular accomplishment. Of course, at the moment, the Camp David peace process is very bogged down. But--

NINA TOTENBERG: I just want to get in a word here. I don't think--

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Go right ahead, Nina Totenberg.

NINA TOTENBERG: I just-- I don't think I really agree with Cokie about this. I think the Carter delegates, many of them were very young or as young as the Kennedy delegates. And a lot of the Kennedy delegates were the old pros, like the Philadelphia machine. But the fact is that Carter had the incumbency. He had the power of the incumbency.

And that's why a lot of these delegates stuck with him. And they did so because out of loyalty and out of power, a sense of loyalty to power. And there was no real big reason like the Vietnam War to dump him. But they weren't real happy with him either. They weren't excited by him.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Well, do we have any other views on the level of excitement or the demonstration or reviews of demonstrations?

COKIE ROBERTS: [CHUCKLES] Linda, I'd like to make a point about the speech. And I think it's something we're going to hear a lot in the next couple of months and something that is a shift. And that is this whole question of growth and the party of growth.

We have been hearing before now the whole business that we had to cut back, that we no longer had the resources that we once had, that we could no longer expand as we have in the past. And that's not a very cheery message, Lord knows. And it wasn't selling very well out there in the primaries and going into a campaign against Ronald Reagan, who is likely to talk about America the way it used to be, which implies growth and expansion.

Clearly, the president has decided to get away from that scarcity theme and the sort of stern image that he's been projecting and talk a little bit more about expansion and growth.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: The president is stuck with having to talk about an uncomfortable economic situation. And he talked about it in the terms that he usually does. He talked about finding hard solutions for hard problems. There are no easy answers. He gave us a fairly long and lively critique of Republican economic solutions, including the Kemp-Roth tax cut, which he said was a free lunch that Americans could not afford.

And then I agree with you, Cokie. I think one of the most interesting sections of the speech because it does represent a kind of basic shift in the rhetoric of the president's campaign, he said, we have learned the uses and limits of power. We have learned the beauty and responsibility of freedom. And he goes on.

But then he says, some argue that to master these lessons is somehow to limit our potential. And that is not so. A nation which knows its true strengths, sees its true challenges, understands legitimate constraints, that nation is far stronger than one which takes refuge in wishful thinking or nostalgia.

Now, that is the kind of-- it's leaning on the politics of hope and the politics of change, which are two of the strongest forces in American politics and the two of the themes that Ronald Reagan is sounding. And so this is obviously an effort to offer the American people something as some kind of an alternative to those themes. John Sears?

JOHN SEARS: Well, I think that's true. Of course, what we saw here tonight and what we saw in the acceptance speech of Ronald Reagan in Detroit represents the high mindedness with which campaigns usually start. By October, you're going to see a lot more slinging of something, whether it be mud or something else.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Inventive.

[LAUGHTER]

JOHN SEARS: As is always the case, what the voters will remember about all this that has been said tonight will not be very much by November, I don't think. But that really isn't the point. Both of these speeches-- Mr. Reagan's in Detroit and Mr Carter's here-- really were attempts to raise some hope for a country that has been going without very much of it in recent years.

Both of those speeches really represented a departure in terms of which way to accomplish a better life here. And I think the election campaign will be fought out on means rather than ends.

SANDY UNGAR: Certainly, the speech tonight John, seem to try to deal with some of the very points that were brought up by Ronald Reagan in his acceptance speech without necessarily admitting that that was the point.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Let's go down to the floor. Alan Berlow, you were there for the whole speech, watching it, looking up instead of looking down as we were from our vantage point at the top of the hall. What stood out in your mind as something that really seemed to appeal to the people who listened to the speech?

ALAN BERLOW: Well, I think that the audience here enjoyed most or was most responsive to Carter's foreign policy accomplishments. I think it was interesting that Vice President Mondale pretty much carried the ball in terms of making the case for domestic accomplishments.

The president, on the other hand, largely in terms of domestic economic issues, social issues, hit on what Ronald Reagan wasn't going to do rather than pointing so much to what Jimmy Carter had done.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Same kinds of themes that Walter Mondale sounded when he spoke.

ALAN BERLOW: Right.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: And you're right, the crowd was very responsive to that sort of thing. Let's ask John Sears if Jimmy Carter leaves this hall tonight substantially stronger than he was when he walked into it.

JOHN SEARS: Well, he leaves this convention after this week I think substantially stronger. We had Pat Caddell up here a while ago. And he was saying that he expected that the next series of polls that we'll see would probably indicate that there's no more than 10 to 12 points difference between Mr. Reagan and Mr. Carter.

And if that's the case-- and I suspect there will be some making up of the distance which has existed before-- then we can definitely conclude that all this has helped the president. I think without the benefit of a poll, we still can conclude that. Again, the political job, once Mr. Kennedy's chances of being nominated were over was to get the party together. And the Democrats did a good job of that this year.

In some other years, they haven't. This year, they did. And it wasn't an easy job but it was pretty well accomplished. I might have found something a little bit different to do with Mr. Kennedy tonight. I think he might have been highlighted just a little more than he was. But then again, that's a very small thing to disagree with.

SANDY UNGAR: He may have resisted that, too, John.

JOHN SEARS: Well, that's a possibility. But obviously, it would have been in Mr. Carter's interest to really perhaps spend a couple of minutes standing there with Mr. Kennedy alone on the platform, and I didn't see that happen.

SANDY UNGAR: It just didn't quite come off-- they didn't get the a three-way pose of the president--

LINDA WERTHEIMER: --everybody standing there holding hands with their hands in the air.

JOHN SEARS: I fully expected to see that happen here so that the obvious picture could be taken. But it didn't come off.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: That kind of choreography, I suppose, is a little bit difficult to arrange in the excitement of a moment when so many people were up on the platform. So many political leaders were called there by Robert Strauss.

JOHN SEARS: And when you can't drop some balloons, I guess everything gets a little--

SANDY UNGAR: I think we owe the listeners a last report from the balloon front, which is that these two large containers of balloons never did get emptied. They lurched, and they swayed. And they were pulled and tugged. But I would suspect that there are still thousands of balloons up there. Somebody's going to have to let them down and explode them in the next few days, I guess.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Well, perhaps the next game that is played in Madison Square Garden can begin with a cascade of balloons. They're all still hanging around up there, though. And we're going to have no magnificent picture full of balloons of the sort that we saw at the end of the Republican convention.

JOHN SEARS: We might take a look just for a moment, now that both conventions are over with, at a little electoral politics. We will be moving ahead now into the campaign. I think really both conventions sort of did what they were supposed to.

Mr. Reagan left his with a unified party and a vice presidential nominee that in the end, went down very well with the Republican Party. Mr. Carter came here, the subject of great controversy, and managed I think to make great progress in uniting his party.

What will be very important now for Mr. Carter is to get Mr. Kennedy out campaigning as quickly as possible. He doesn't have to campaign-- Mr. Kennedy doesn't have to campaign nonstop. But it'll be important for, again, the party regulars to see Mr. Kennedy out there very quickly to show that the support that Mr. Kennedy has given the ticket is really meaningful and isn't just superficial. So you can expect I think that that will happen.

Now, Mr. Carter's job, of course, and Mr. Mondale's as well is to recapture the Southern base that Mr. Carter came into the election of '76 with. In 1976, Mr. Carter carried all the Southern states with the exception of Virginia. This was a great change from what had been the pattern of national elections over the last 20 years almost. The Republicans usually had done very well in the Southern states over the last 20 years.

And as you may recall, there was talk at various times of a Republican Southern strategy that married Southern electoral votes with the Middlewest and West. Now, Mr. Carter interrupted that process. He, as I say, came into '76, carried all of the South except for Virginia.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: And the famous Southern strategy went down.

JOHN SEARS: Well, it was one of the problems. Just to digress on that, Mr. Ford, although he made up a great deal of ground, didn't realize quite the opportunity that he had in the Northeast, given Mr. Carter's candidacy. But anyway, Carter must get the South. He must put that together with the Northeast, which is an area in which the Democratic Party-- not necessarily at all Mr. Carter, but the Democratic Party-- is much stronger than the Republican Party.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: So that means he has to hold on to the loyalty and the help and support of people like Governor Hugh Carey of New York, Senator Kennedy.

JOHN SEARS: Well, Senator Kennedy will be very important to that aspect of it. Now, if he is able to do that, throwing out Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont, and leaving Texas and Florida perhaps out of the equation because they will be states in which Mr. Reagan is strong as well, but that combination of Southern and Northeastern support with those exceptions gives you a little over 240 electoral votes.

And of course, all you need is 270. So then if you could carry Texas and Florida, for instance, you would have it. If you could carry a couple of large states in the Middlewest or one large state in the something out in the West, you'd have it. So basically he has to put that base of Southern and Northeastern support together and then pick out a couple of other places just to get over the top.

Now, Mr. Reagan's difficulty is that he will come into the election with the West behind him, a pretty solid support, west of the Mississippi River. What he must do--

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Presumably an advantage in California and possibly even in Texas.

JOHN SEARS: Well, California for sure and possibly Texas.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Is California a gone for Carter, John, do you think?

JOHN SEARS: Well, it isn't a matter of being gone. What Mr. Carter should do is keep an eye on it for a while, not put any early money into it but watch it for a while. And then if it looks feasible at all at the very end, throw some money in at that point. If it doesn't, let it go.

Mr. Carter doesn't need California to get reelected so it would be foolish to waste a lot of time and effort on it unless the circumstances at the very end would allow for that.

But anyway, back to Mr. Reagan. He'll come in with the West. Because as of Mr. Carter's home base support in the South that probably is more likely that Mr. Reagan would choose to contest him up in the Northeast, where Mr. Carter even after this convention I think will continue to have difficulties most specifically with the Jewish vote in the Northeast and some of the Catholic minorities.

And it will be up to Mr. Reagan to try to pull votes away from Mr. Carter among those two groups. Those two groups are very important, especially in New York and New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The interesting thing about this election is that for the first time in a number of years, really the Northeast will be the battleground.

Over the last 20 years, the Republicans have conceded the Northeast to the Democrats and chosen to fight them in the South and Middlewest. And this time, that's not probably the way it's going to go.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: So the mayors of our large urban centers in the North and East can look forward to lots of grants and help and bridges built and all sorts of assistance coming from the Democratic Party while they still hold power.

JOHN SEARS: Very probably.

SANDY UNGAR: Certainly for the next few months anyway.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: [LAUGHS] Well, thank you very much, John Sears, for that assessment of the strategy that we'll see as the Democrats leave New York. Let's just check one more time with our floor reporters, see if Alan Berlow and Nina Totenberg have some final impressions of this evening's business. Alan Berlow?

ALAN BERLOW: Yeah, Linda. The only thing I would add to what John was saying is that I talked to a lot of congressional delegates here tonight. And the one thing that they are very concerned about is the Carter campaign getting out the vote. I talked to Jim Howard last night, a Congressman from New Jersey. He is in a marginal seat as is Annie McGuire of New Jersey.

They are both very concerned about whether the Carter camp can get out the votes to keep those seats in Congress. Ronald Reagan is going to be bringing out a lot of Republicans. And as there's been a lot of speculation about the Senate going Republican, losing four or five major committee chairmanships.

There's a similar problem in the house, although not quite as serious. And a lot of this is going to depend on whether Kennedy's people start working.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Nina Totenberg?

NINA TOTENBERG: Yes, and that's one of the reasons that so many congressional Democrats are really anxious not to have John Anderson struck from the ballot in their states, because John Anderson will bring out a significant moderate to liberal vote that might go for some of those Democrats-- that might not go for the president.

I might add, Linda, that here on the floor of the Democratic National Convention, the ushers at Madison Square Garden are moving through the aisles saying, everybody, please go home.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: [LAUGHS] Thank you very much, Nina.

SANDY UNGAR: Can understand their feelings.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Cokie Roberts up here in the booth, you've been talking to delegates. You've been on the floor. You've been watching the Kennedy campaign.

COKIE ROBERTS: Well, I think that-- actually, one funny thing-- of course, you've talked about the posing on the podium. And I'm sure that now that we are finished these conventions and we're into August and we have no other news coming for the next week that we will read, hundreds of words of Talmudic disputation of why that picture wasn't taken.

But I think that it does get to the heart of this question of the Northeast strategy. And by the way, it's interesting. It's the last year we'll ever hear about that for a time to come because after this 1980 census is taken, it's the last year that the electoral college will have the majority in these states that have them now. So we will see some very, very interesting changes four years from now when we have a completely different electoral college.

SANDY UNGAR: Shifts to the Sunbelt.

COKIE ROBERTS: Shifts to the Sunbelt and to the South, so we have to look at those newcomers in the South, John, who we haven't talked about. And Carter and Reagan will be fighting over them as well. But I was most interested in seeing how the Democratic Party was going to come out of this convention.

It went into this convention very split and very confused about where it was in the country right now. Kennedy has been calling Carter a Republican. There's been a move. We keep hearing about conservatism in this country.

And yet this-- of course, there were activists here at this convention. But even people who were ardent Carter supporters, who were Southerners, were are not conservatives. They were people talking about this being the party of the common man, the party of the working man. And the party does seem to still have its heart and soul together coming out of this convention.

And we all got a little sick of the fanfare for the common man. But I think it was very important to those folks down there.

JOHN SEARS: Yeah, that's an interesting point. The Democrats are off the performance here tonight to make one more try at what has been the classic coalition again, see if you can't pull it back together just one more time to win an election.

The coalition of labor support and minority support and a couple of other ingredients that originally united behind Franklin Roosevelt and has been a dominant part of Democratic politics for the last 50 years is being called upon once again. And it'll be interesting to see how well it can come back together.

There is no doubt in my mind that over the years of the '80s, the splits and the differences of opinion in the classic Democratic coalition will become strong enough that it will not be able to be brought together much longer. But it'll be interesting to see whether you can just one more time.

SANDY UNGAR: Linda, I would think that another very important thing in these next few weeks is going to be the performance of John Anderson. John Sears, don't you think this next period of time is quite significant in Anderson's attempts to become credible? He presumably has to select a running mate, has to make some decisions and some statements that will increase or decrease his credibility as a serious third candidate in the selection.

JOHN SEARS: Yes, that's right. And I'd add this other thought, too. Mr. Anderson's candidacy is something that is going to be of interest of course to both the other two major candidates-- Mr. Reagan and Mr. Carter. Basically, when you have a third man in the race who you're pretty sure is going to draw some votes, what you both try to do is force him to hurt the other guy worse than he hurts you.

In other words, in the major industrial states, what the Democrats will be trying to do is to pull back in line all their votes in the cities and force Mr. Anderson's candidacy out into the suburbs, where the expectation would be that he'd draw from Ronald Reagan. Most of the suburban areas around the cities vote very heavily Republican in national elections.

Mr. Reagan will be trying to do quite the opposite. He'll be trying to hold on to his votes in the suburbs and thereby force whatever votes go to Mr. Anderson to come out of the cities, send off Mr. Carter. And really the speculation in we've heard that Mr. Anderson, by definition somewhat, would hurt Mr. Carter more than Mr Reagan. It doesn't necessarily at all have to be true.

A case in point is the state of Illinois, which will be hotly contested. But in Illinois, given the fact that Mr. Anderson is known well there and his congressional district abuts on suburban Chicago, it will be very difficult for Ronald Reagan in DuPage County and Lake County, which are around the city of Chicago and vote very heavily Republican normally, to get the normal amount of advantage out of those counties.

SANDY UNGAR: Even though he considers Illinois a home state?

JOHN SEARS: Well, he's from quite far south of there.

SANDY UNGAR: That's right.

JOHN SEARS: In the Chicago area, they don't necessarily believe that's part of the same state.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Well, it will give us all something to look forward to in a political summer that has a little bit of a hiatus between now and Labor Day when the campaigns will begin in earnest. We can expect Mr. Anderson to consider the possibility of a vice presidential running mate and launch his campaign since he doesn't have a convention. And we'll look forward to that happening.

But this convention, this Democratic convention is now over. There are very few people left in the hall. We see some people posing for pictures in the-- up at the podium, waving to the crowd, which is no longer there, and displaying a tremendous poster, Carter-Mondale poster, upside down.

So on that note, we will conclude National Public Radio's live gavel to gavel coverage of the fourth and final session of the Democratic National Convention.

SANDY UNGAR: There have been many people who've helped bring these programs to our audience over the past four nights. And we'd like to take a moment to thank them.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: I think it's going to be more than a moment. There were so many. Our engineering supervisor is Jim McEachern with assistance from Gary Henderson, Flawn Williams, Andy Rosenberg, production assistance from Denise Randolph, Cornelia Piper, Peter Lincoln, Alan Casey, Tim Zimmerman, and Matt Schwartz.

SANDY UNGAR: Our editor is Leslie Sewell. And our floor reporters throughout the past four nights have been Nina Totenberg, Cokie Roberts, Carolyn Craven, David Molpus, Neal Conan, Scott Simon, Robert Krulwich, Alan Berlow, and Clem Taylor.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Special thanks to our member stations WBGO in Newark and WNYC here in New York City.

SANDY UNGAR: This program was directed this week by Richard Firestone. Our associate producers were Warren Kozak and Fred Fishkin.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: executive producer of NPR'S convention coverage is Frank Fitzmaurice. Our news director is Barbara Cohen. For my colleagues John Sears, David Halberstam, and Sanford Unger, I'm Linda Wertheimer. Thank you for joining us. Good night from New York City.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

SPEAKER 2: This program was made possible by an unrestricted events coverage fund supported by grants from the Mobil Corporation and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. This is NPR, National Public Radio.

SPEAKER 1: And this is the news and information service of Minnesota Public Radio, KSJN AM, Minneapolis and St. Paul. Local coverage for this week's Democratic National Convention has been made possible with a grant from the Minneapolis Star. Our news coverage and wrap-up of that convention will be heard on Morning Edition starting at 5 o'clock tomorrow morning, as well as all other events of note. And that program kicks underway in about 5 and 1/2 hours.

It is now 27 and 1/2 minutes before midnight, before we leave the air. A check on the late evening weather forecasts, first for Minnesota, clear to partly cloudy tonight and Friday, lows in the middle 40s to middle 50s in the South.

Increasing cloudiness then in the South with a chance of showers and thunderstorms by Friday night. Clear to partly cloudy North, lows 50 to 60. On Saturday, showers and thunderstorms are expected to spread across the state. Highs Saturday will be in the 70s.

For our Metropolitan area, clear to partly cloudy tonight and Friday, lows in the mid 50s, highs, Friday in the mid 70s, increasing cloudiness on Friday night and the chance of showers and thunderstorms late Friday, lows Friday night in the upper 50s.

Mostly cloudy Saturday, showers and thunderstorms likely, highs in the mid 70s. North to Northeast winds at 5 to 10 miles per hour tonight. We'll move to the East, Southeast at 10 to 15 on Friday. And there's a 30% chance of rain by Friday night.

Looking ahead to the late weekend period, for the metro area, chance of showers and thunderstorms Sunday and Monday morning, clear to partly cloudy by Monday afternoon and on Tuesday, highs, low to mid 80s. And the lows should be in the upper 60s to lower-- other upper 50s to lower 60s.

At 11 o'clock in the Twin Cities, 66 Fahrenheit, 19 Celsius, relative humidity, 68%, winds at 6 miles per hour from the northeast. And the barometer was rising at 30.03.

Around the region at 11 o'clock, we had a temperature of 63 under clear skies at Alexandria, partly cloudy at Rochester, 60 degrees. That was the only partly cloudy reading-- sky reading rather. And at International Falls, we had 59 degrees, Hibbing, clear and 54. And at Duluth, clear and 53. Again, 66 in the Twin Cities, 25 and 1/2 before midnight.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

GARY EICHTEN: This is Gary Eichten inviting you to tune to KSJN FM at 91.1 megahertz for music. KSJN AM will return to the air at 5:00 AM tomorrow with Morning Edition. KSJN AM is a listener-supported station, operated by Minnesota Public Radio Incorporated.

KSJN AM operates at 13.30 kilohertz with 5,000 watts of power. Our studios are located at 400 Sibley Street in St. Paul, with transmitter facilities located at 1370 Davern Street in St. Paul.

KSJN AM is licensed to Minneapolis, St. Paul, and serves the Greater Twin Cities Metropolitan area.