President Carter returned to the White House this day after a busy and raucous visit to New York. At a town meeting in Queens, Carter was asked about the Russian/Cuban situation brewing, to which Carter replied the current information concluded there was no threat to America with the Soviet troop presence there. He went on to add his position on the matter would be clarified sometime during the following week with a nationwide address.
President Carter leveled his strongest criticism to date of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and vowed to run in each of next year’s 35 presidential primaries, declaring: “I have never backed down in the face of adversity.” Carter said that Kennedy has had 16 years to come up with a national health care bill and simply hasn’t produced. The newly combative President said that be looked forward to his first head-to-head skirmish with the Massachusetts Democrat during the political straw poll to be taken among Florida Democrats id Earlier in the day. Carter spoke in Manhattan and then met with political and community leaders at the invitation of Mayor Koch before heading to Queens College’s Colden Auditorium for his evening town meeting before a crowd of more than 2,000.
Carter’s reception at the college, which some critics had warned could turn into a politically embarrassing “turkey shoot,” turned instead into a platform for the President to preview a feisty new campaign style. Gone was the singsong delivery and anemic voice Jimmy Carter tub-thumped last night and the crowd generally loved it. Swipes at Teddy During a long answer to a multi-sided question, Carter volunteered the swipe at “Sen. Kennedy has been in Congress now for 16 years,” Carter said. He noted that Kennedy’s “major premise, his major goal” has been a national health plan. “He has never gotten a comprehensive health bill out of a subcommittee,” Carter charged, noting that Kennedy was chairman of the Senate health care subcommittee.
To a later question, about his definition of leadership and how he would contrast himself with Kennedy, Carter said flatly: “I’ve never been afraid to tackle a difficult issue. I’ve made decisions that require a steady hand . . . don’t think I panic in a crisis . . . I was willing to challenge the incumbent President and prevail.”
In other news – Jesse Jackson was winding up his controversial visit to Israel. The head of Operation PUSH (People United To Save Humanity) was slated to also meet with Arab leaders of the West Bank region later in the day. News of the upcoming meeting caused a falling out between Jackson and two prominent Jews from the Los Angeles area who complained that Jackson had no interest in the Middle-East situation but rather exploiting it to advance his own political career. They also pointed out that Jackson had cancelled meetings with some Israeli leaders who would have condemned the upcoming Arab meeting. Israeli observers remarked that the proposed meetings were a ruse in order to give the impression Jackson was even-handed in the situation – one reason why Prime Minister Begin refused to meet with Jackson.
All that, and so much more for this rather busy September 26, 1979 as reported by The CBS World News Roundup.
