Keeping Faith: Memoirs of a President

Lining Up My Team

LINING UP MY TEAM I would like to delegate much more authority as President than I ever tried to do as governor. It’s just not within the bounds of human capability to go into as much detail as I did in Georgia. Also, I believe the staff and Cabinet officers would prefer to have minimal participation by me until the final decision point is reached. DIARY, JANUARY 24, 1977 Throughout the long primary campaign, I had been determined not to make any early commitments concerning the Vice Presidency or other major positions in the administration. I wanted to keep all my options open. In 1972, I had observed the habit of presidential candidates’ insinuating to citizens in each state they visited that their governor or senator would be a good choice for Vice President. I admit that at the time I was interested in being chosen as Vice President myself, and this may have been why the practice annoyed me. Furthermore, many times during my campaign I had promised not to make a misleading statement; after I had won a few victories, the traveling press closely scrutinized every word of mine to make sure this standard was met. In any case, my campaign staff was directed to refrain from this kind of teasing, and I followed my own advice. I had made only one early decision about the Vice President—that it was important for me to choose a member of Congress as my running mate in order to provide some balance of experience to our ticket. Without ever having served in Washington myself, I needed someone who was familiar with the federal government and particularly with the legislative branch. I did not know many of the senators or representatives on Capitol Hill and had not spent much time studying about them. Throughout the 37 primary months, I was almost totally devoted to winning as many of the elections as possible, or at least accumulating enough delegates to gain the nomination on the first convention ballot. If I had failed in this effort and it had become necessary to consider certain people among the qualified running mates in order to gain a majority of the delegates, I would not have hesitated for a moment to do so. Fortunately, before I went to the Democratic Convention, I had enough delegate votes to win, so I had a totally free hand in choosing my vice-presidential partner. When the primary elections were over in early June, we all were exhausted. My campaign team and I took a few days off to rest, to meditate , and to plan for the future. Until that time, I had not undertaken any serious discussions about the Vice Presidency, but now it was time to begin the selection process. If an instant choice had been required at that time, it would have been Senator Frank Church of Idaho, or perhaps Senator Henry Jackson of Washington. Since both had been opponents of mine in the primaries, I was familiar with their general political philosophy , their stands on particular issues, and their campaign strengths and weaknesses. I also knew them to be ambitious and willing to face a difficult political contest. However, it was also important to look at people with whom I was less familiar. So with Charles Kirbo, Rosalynn, and my campaign leaders, I systematically went down the roster of all the Democratic members of Congress. We sought advice from Democratic statesmen and leading citizens who were familiar with the work of those we were considering. I talked to many people by telephone, and Kirbo spent some time in Washington in private discussions about the potential nominees. We soon reduced the list to about twenty names. Hamilton Jordan, my campaign manager, contrived a formula for weighing the qualities of these potential nominees, and we ranked them by their leadership ability, their voting record, their attractiveness to the key constituency groups among whom I needed help, their campaign effectiveness, their experience in matters where my own was limited, and their geographical strength. The overriding consideration for me was how a person might perform the duties of President. Eventually, Senators Edmund Muskie, John Glenn, and Walter Mondale, in turn, came down to Plains to discuss in depth the advisability of our joining together. Senators Frank Church, Adlai Stevenson, Henry Jackson, and Representative Peter Rodino preferred to meet with 38 A GRADUATE COURSE IN AMERICA me in...