October 9, 1976
By Robert Bentley
Editor, The Times
Photo: 10/09/1976 As a security guard watches
from his vantage point, Democratic presidential candidate Jimmy Carter
acknowledges greetings form an El Paso welcoming crowd at the airport's
transient terminal. At right is County Judge Udell Moore. At center is
Juarez Mayor Dr. Raul Lezama.
ABOARD THE PEANUT ONE - While pursuing a big job, Jimmy Carter often retreats into a small world.
This
world can be just a few hundred feet from the madding political crowds,
or even a fabric curtain away from ever-nearby Secret Service agents, a
bustling campaign staff and a raucous press corps.
But it's
evident that the tiny partitioned section at the front of Carter's
modified 727 jet is not only a working area, but "home."
The
"Peanut One" transports a standard flight crew, security personnel, key
staff members and representatives of major newspapers and wire services.
The appearance of the major section reflects the variety of professions
and personalities.
Carter's compartment reflects pure Carter ...
his personality, his political and personal concerns, his pastimes and
his religious beliefs.
His desk contains typical campaign clutter;
the press releases, the typed speeches, the hand-scribbled notes on
scraps of wrinkled paper.
Friday, while Carter was making an
appearance in downtown Albuquerque, it also contained a deck of playing
cards and a hand-written note bearing a telephone number and the name of
Hubert Humphrey, a former Democratic presidential nominee who is
recuperating from a cancer operation.
Nailed above a seat is a horseshoe, a good-luck wish from some forgotten donor.
Scattered
round his swivel chair are magazines, reporters' notepads, a copy of
the New York Times and "Foreign Policy," a periodical presumably remnant
of Carter's successful second debate with President Ford.
Beside a small green sofa, complete with seatbelts for napping, Carter's small, well-worn Bible rests on a table.
A
hasty escort by a Secret Service Agent from the empty Carter
compartment to the staff-and-press section puts an editor more at ease.
Even though near-empty, it is far less serene and reverent.
Dozens of motel keys from across the nation taped above the seats reflect rushed and/or sleepy departures.
Many
of the seats contain portable typewriters and tape recorders. One bears
a wine bottle, half-empty; another a dirty wash cloth.
The floors
are strewn with notes and scores of news releases which obviously never
saw print and, of all things in a Carter campaign plane, macadamia
nuts.
The rear wall is decorated by a newspaper photograph of Vice
President Nelson Rockefeller giving an obscene gesture. Beatification
of a table has been attempted with a vase of withering yellow roses.
When
things start to happen on Peanut One, they happen fast. It is obvious
that Carter has returned from the campaign, press corps piles in through
the back door and typewriters begin to clatter.
Barbs are mingled
with pressure work as reporters spend the next 40 minutes getting their
stories in shape for filing to their papers at the next stop. Voices
from various parts of the plane are a blur.
"Where are we landing?:
"I don't know,"
"Hell, I can't see anything but desert."
"El Paso. Bring your own tamales."
"And collard greens."
The last accent was unmistakably Georgian.
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