Jimmy Who?, by Leslie Wheeler: on Principles & Values


Oct. 1975: Choice of 1% of voters; others said, "Jimmy Who?"

Although the name Jimmy Carter has recently become a household word, many American citizens are probably unaware that in October 1975--less than 10 months before the 1976 Democratic convention--the Gallup presidential poll indicated that nationwide the former Georgia governor was the choice of only 1% of Democratic voters. Little wonder then that American voters asked "Jimmy Who?" when queried by pollsters or newsmen about the smiling Georgian. But within a period of 5 months Jimmy Carter jumped to 2nd place in the Gallup poll, 2 points behind Senator Hubert H. Humphrey (30% to 28%); by mid-May he had forged ahead.
Source: Jimmy Who?, by Leslie Wheeler, p. vii Jan 1, 1976

Nothing wrong with ethnic purity in neighborhoods

By March, Carter was riding high. Then came April and the furor over "ethnic purity." The ill-chosen phrase first appeared in an interview published in the New York Daily News. Asked about low-income, scatter-site housing in the suburbs, Carter said, "I see nothing wrong with ethnic purity being maintained. I would not force a racial integration of a neighborhood by government action. But I would not permit discrimination against a family moving into a neighborhood." There was nothing "wrong" with Carter's position here, but the phrase ethnic purity seemed to have racist and even Hitlerian connotations.

The networks proceeded to grill Carter as to exactly what he meant by "ethnic purity." The flak that resulted looked as if it might have serious effects on Carter's campaign. The candidate's main black supporter, Andrew Young, called the phrase a "disaster". White Northern liberals who had suspected Carter of being a "scrubbed over" Wallace all along produced a chorus of "I-told-you-so's."

Source: Jimmy Who?, by Leslie Wheeler, p.125 Jan 1, 1976

  • The above quotations are from Jimmy Who?
    An Examination of Presidential Candidate Jimmy Carter
    by Leslie Wheeler .
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