ustxtxb_obs_1977_12_30_50_00022-00000_000.pdf

early money so essential to mounting a full presidential challenge. Ironically, these same Californians made a $50,000 contribution to Carter in 1975, not because they liked him, but because they feared George Wallace’s candidacy and wanted to use Carter to do in the Alabama governor in the South. Had they arranged to make the same contributions to Harris, for example, he would have been able to put badly needed organizers into Iowa and New Hampshire in the summer of ’75, rather than at Christmas. And the matching funds that such contributions would have generated in January of ’76 would have allowed him to buy more television time in New Hampshire. As it turned out, a nearempty war chest forced us to cancel much of the time already reserved. The entire Harris budget for the New Hampshire primary, $70,000, bought precious little media exposure. While we were scrambling in the snow for our political life, NBC television was spending $100,000 to turn a Manchester motel suite into an anchor set for election night coverage and a Barbara Walters “Today” show broadcastall this expense and bother for a total of five hours’ air time. Walking through the set while it was under construction, I realized there is no campaign reform worthy of the name unless it includes a provision for free television and radio time for all candidates. Witcover adverts to the possibility of such a reform in his concluding chapter, noting that, “The networks certainly would squawk, but they always do when a suggestion comes along to reduce their gigantic profits to merely colossal.” But the matter deserves more attention than Witcover gives it, because free air time would do even more than federal matching funds to put candidates on relatively equal financial footing. As it, is, candidates spend most of their tax dollars on network air time, which is owned by the public in the first place. Better to allocate a minimum amount of the public’s air time to each candidate, leaving the matching money for grassroots campaigning. Aside from Witcover’s Marathon, the ’76 crop of campaign books is hardly vintage. There were no gems this time, nothing to rival Hunter Thompson’s Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail or Timothy Crouse’s The Boys on the Bus, both products of the ’72 race. \(Crouse’s book did prompt a curious sort of televised follow4ip: a documentary crew tagged along with Witcover early in ’76 to cover him covering the campaignsit was a little disconcerting to be interviewedas I wasin a Manchester bar by Witcover, with the cameras zooming in on his face when he asked a question and panning to his reporter’s notebook while he scrawled my guarded response; Witcover was getting better TV coverage than Harris. The only other book worth mentioning is Elizabeth Drew’s American Journal: The Events of ’76, but only because it was disappointingly shallow. Drew is a keen observer and a good writer, capable of much better reporting than this, most of which appeared in The New Yorker during ’76. A major flaw is that she doesn’t start her journal until Jan. 1, 1976; she seems unaware of all that has led up to the election year. The Harris campaign, for example, which had played extraordinarily well in 1975 and had a pretty good two months in 1976 before going into a tailspin at the end of kind of lark” by Drew. No one who put the time, thought, energy and money that Harris did into his campaignat one point, he even mortgaged his houseis off on a lark. Another problem with Drew’s work is that she spent a lot of 1976 in the company of Washington establishment types like Hubert Humphrey, Carl Holman, Fred Dutton and Adlai Stevenson. \(“This afternoon, I dropped by to talk with John Gardner, to see what he was thinking about,” is a people may be, they usually are the last to know what’s going on in the country or what someone like Jimmy Carter is about. I am left to conclude that the most perceptive writing about 1976 is not to be found in a book. It was done by Joe Klein, a reporter and associate editor of Rolling Stone, and published in the magazine’s Sept. 25, 1975, March 11 and March 25, 1976, issues. In the last two of these, Klein attempted the only innovative coverage of the campaign rather than follow one or more of the candidates, he settled in two towns \(Sioux City, Iowa, and Jacksonville, him. He reported on local people, their issues, and their responses to the candidates as they came through. It worked, and Klein got to the meat both of presidential politicking and the public mood. Unfortunately, Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner couldn’t understand what Klein had brought off, and made him do personality pieces on the candidates instead. It’s a shame; had Klein been able to continue, his locally based articles could have added up to a book that would have made the best campaign reading of 1976. J Lr : i NEW ORLEANS ON $8 A YEAR. The Weekly Courier, 1232 Dec’atur, New Orleans, La. 70116. EIGHT LARGE COLORED PRINTS, UT and Austin. $5.90 ppd. Longhorn Frame, 507 Bee Caves, Austin 78746. FOREIGN AUTO SERVICE. In Houston. Honest, reliable service. VW, Volvo, and some others. 1805 Laverne, 467-0664. RECORDER PLAYERS. Looking for re corder music? We have largest library in West. Come in or send for catalog. Amster Recorder Co., 1624 Lavaca, Austin 78703. BOOK-HUNTING? No obligation search for rare or out-of-print books. Ruth and John Iv 8 , Li\(,!. 1 73 , A Wel , If: X 2 S 7S10 . . sei…vccorvammusaillis 22 DECEMBER 30, 1977 FINANCE YOUR NON-TANGIBLE sale: contracts through me. Trade school, health spas with service contracts financed without credit check, Write Kenneth Edwards, ‘Economist, 3237 Ewing Ave., Houston, Texas 77004. FREE. WHEELING BICYCLES, 2404 San Gabriel, Austin. For . whatever your bitycle needs. . NEED SOMETHLNG from Germany? Jim & Hanni International, 1600 Northwood, Austin 78703. 474-2582. WIN YOUR NEXT ELECTION. Send for free catalogue of service and materials available from one of America’s best-known political consulting firms. Write Campaign Associates, Inc., 516 Petroleum Bldg., Dept. JOIN COMMON CAUSE. Only one person can make democracy work again … YOU. $15 \($7 711 San Antonio St., Austin, Texas 78701. IRISH TIN WHISTLES. Bb,C,D,Eb,F, and G. Any three for 10 postpaid. Amster Music, 1624 Lavaca, Austin 78703. LIBERTY LUNCH. 405 W. 2nd. Austin. Eclectic fare. Jazz Theatre. JOIN. THE ACLU. Membership $20. Tdxas Civil Liberties Union, 600 West 7th, Austin t Texas 78701. Classified advertising is 300 per word. Discounts for multiple insertions within a 12month period: 25 times, 50 percent; 12 times, 25 percent; 6 times, 10 percent. vammtierststaetwatif fiorwastiareticAerriarxweLvaramir .111