PRESIDENT CARTER STRETCHES both of his arms to crowds in Jacksonville, Fla. yesterday. The president challenged GOP presidential nominee
Ronald Reagan to a series of debates, an offer Reagan wasted no time accepting.

Carter, Reagan

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) -
President Carter, saying he anticipates
a "hard-fought and thoughtful cam-
paign," challenged Republican
presidential nominee Ronald Reagan to
a series of debates yesterday and
promptly went politicking.
Reagan, in Detroit, lost no time ac-
cepting the challenged offered the day
after his selection as Republican stan-
dard-bearer and his announcement of
George Bush as his running mate.
CARTER, WHO spent the week of the
Republican National Convention on
vacation in Georgia, flew to Jackson-
ville, Fla., yesterday afternoon for a
day of political talks, taking his first
opportunity to react to Reagan's
nomination.

After an outdoor rally in Jackson-
ville, the president was flying to
Hollywood, Fla., for a fund-raiser and a
speech to the International Transport
Workers Federation before returning to
Washington.
Asked by reporters in Jacksonville
about the Reagan nomination, the
president said: "I think it's a good
ticket. I think they'll be formidable op-
ponents and we look forward to a good
campaign."
AND IF former President Gerald
Ford had been named as Reagan's vice-
presidential nominee?
"That would have been a pleasure
either way," the president said. Before
departing yesterday morning from
Sapelo Island off the Georgia coast,

agree to
where he had been vacationing, Carter
made a congratulatory telephone call to
Reagan and then sent a telegram
suggesting the fall debates "in the
various regions of our nation."
Reagan said "he thought that was a
good idea," Carter told reporters later.
IN THE telegram, Carter suggested
the debates would enable the can-
didates to "thoroughly discuss issues of
national concern and of interest to the
people of particular sections of our
nation."
At the outdoor rally near the St. Johns
River in Jacksonville, the president
was cheered by a noontime crowd of

debate
about 5,000, many standing on balconies
under a clear blue sky.
At a meeting with community
leaders, Carter said Reagan's proposed
tax cut - of 10per cent a year for three
years - would "shock the economy"
and "re-stimulate the inflationary
spiral ina devastating way."
In his brief remarks, to which the
audience offered little reaction, Carter
reiterated his commitment to a strong
defense, saying he believes in "peace
through strength." He pledged that if
re-elected, "our commitment to defen-
se will continue to increase year by
year."

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