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Show 4 moncfay, 18 October 31, 1977 u Open Account de lbledano CARTERS PRESS CARTER AND THE PRESIDENCY A CRISIS OF CONFIDENCE? By RALPH deTOLEDANO Copley News Service bv Chuck Akerlow The news magazines this week are full of discussion on a central point has President Carter lost the confidence of the American business community and the American public? While the reports in Time and Business Week are inconclusive on the questions each poses, the thrust of the articles is that President Carter has stumbled badly in the handling of the nation's economy which is why it still appears sluggish and nowhere near full recovery. The problem with Jimmy Carter is that no one is quite sure where he is going. He does not appear to enjoy the confidence of his own party in Congress. His energy program has met some huge obstacles there as well as undergone major surgery. His national attack on television against the oil producers as of all having engineered the greatest rip-otime did little to build confidence of the business community in his judgement or interest in America's business. g His on western water projects over the weekend raises serious questions on the quality of White House staff work. And his inability to gather any consensus within his own party on what is needed in tax reform points up the problems the President now faces. Frankly, I think the President's problems come from his lack of national perspective. Every new president has had an adjustment period and Carter is no exception. But after nine months in office a trend in how and whv a chief executive makes decisions usually begins to emerge. ff back-peddlin- THE UTAH In the case of Carter there still isn't an identifiable person in the White House. At times he sounds like a Georgia populist. The liberals became disenchanted when he put balancing the budget ahead of expanded social programs. Business became suspicious when his energy program burdened the energy producers with greater taxes but no incentives in exploration and development. His middle eastern policy has had the effect of keeping everyone, most notably the American Jewish community, wondering when, if ever, the Geneva talks would resume. It seems as if the President is still on the campaign trail making policy pronouncements on the run. There is a great rush to issue as many new position papers and new programs as can be humanly cranked out of the White House. The problem is that neither the country nor the Congress nor the White House has the time to digest the whole package in the pace in which it comes. The only way to eat an elephant (with apologies to the GOP) is one bite at a time. And the only sensible way to revolutionize government is one program at a time. The supposed confidence crisis of the American people in President Caiter is not It is a really a crisis. It is a "bafflement. wonderment. All of which is brought on by an administration eager to change whatever has gone on before but without a sense of priority of what ought to change first and without a sense of history about the impact of change on the nation. He'll build our confidence when be begins to realize we do not expect him to know everything but just to do something however small right. Those readers who wrote me in response to the news that the White House had lifted my credentials, may be happy to learn that Press Secretary Jody Powell was magnanimous enough to restore them. Armed with my new White House card, I promptly attended President Carter's subsequent press conference. When I walked into the small auditorium in the old Executive Office Building in w hich these portentous gatherings are held, I was startled to see that, except for those in the back rows, all the seats were reserved. In the past, reporters for the wire services and for the most most prestigious newspapers had the privilege of sitting in the scats of honor. Now even newsletters, some of which I had never heard of, have been accorded the distinction of marked seats leaving other correspondents and columnists to the back 40 acres. When Mr. Cartel walked in, the entire assemblage leaped to its feet and I expected to see small flags, or at least bags of Mr. peanuts, being waved at the nonimperial President. Carter, however, gave the press a show of teeth and the watchdog media subsided notebooks open and ballpoint pens poised. The President than launched into a vitriolic attack on the oil industry, making statements of less than dubious accuracy and even more dubious logic. Ah-hnow I will see the great says I to mv self, Washington press corps at its best, seeking for truth in order to satisfy the public's right to know. But it was not to be so. After every question, dozens of reporters would leap to their feet to be recognized. But though many are called, the only ones chosen seemed to be those who predictably would ask the dull or innocuous question. I particularly watched Sarah McClendon, who represents a For many years, Sarah has string of Texas newspapers. a, enlivened presidential press conferences with sometimes sharp, sometimes gadfly questions. But though she was always among the first on her feet, she was never recognized, as she had always been by Mr. Carter's predecessors. (I later learned from a fellow' newsman that she has been allowed to ask but one question since Mr. Carter moved into the Oval Office.) Never once did a reporter ask Mr. Carter to justify his statement that the of natural gas would be the in history" a phrase w hich had appeared that "biggist rip-omorning in a column in the Washington Post. Never once was he asked how it was that his administration has done almost nothing to encourage or permit the exploration for offshore oil or why, if he really believed that the United States should develop alternative sources of energy, he was keeping the lid down on the construction of nuclear plants, blocking as well further work on the vitally needed breeder reactor. These were questions I wanted to ask, but since only those in the reserved seats were of interest to the President. I did not even try. Instead I thought sadly of the days when such journalistic giants as Bill Lawrence of The New York Times demanded more than rhetoric and of CBS Dan Rather, who, right or wrong, was never intimidated by the presidency. After the Thank you. Mr. President," chatted with some veteran correspondents who had proposed to Powell several equitable ways to end the present monopoly of the Presidents attention to no avail. ff 1 When I returned to my desk, I found a mailing piece from Mr. Carter asking me to join and contribute to the President's Club so that I could help elect Democrats who would stand behind him. The printed letter was signed Jimmy." Heartened by this well, you common-ma- n can't have everything." touch, I thought: "Oh, |