The Michigan Daily-Saturday, August 16, 1980-Page 3
ormoenommomeonvention Reportsm
CALLS IT A 'SECRET WEAPON'
Carter courts black vote
NEW YORK (AP)-President Carter, mending his
political fences with a key Democratic constituency,
yesterday called black voters a "secret weapon"
which has repeatedly helped him win elections.
Carter basked in an effusively warm response from
a group of about 300 black Democratic convention
delegates and alternates in his first public appearan-
ce since accepting the party's nomination for a
second term. He and his wife Rosalynn were given a.
standing ovation and treated to chants of "We want
Jimmy, we want Jimmy."
"I HAVE ALWAYS been underestimated as a can-
didate," Carter began. "But I have a secret weapon
and that is the black people of this great country who
know they have a friend in Jimmy Carter."
The 20-minute meeting between Carter and the
black delegates followed a convention week in which
some of them criticized the president, first for
delaying announcement of an economic stimulus
package which would create jobs and then for not
wholeheartedly embracing the one outlined in the
party platform.
A face-to-face meeting between them and the
president became one of the demands stated by the
black delegate caucus as it sought to take advantage
of the largest representation of blacks ever at a
major party convention.
DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL Committee official
Conrad Mallard said there were 489 black delegates
and 275 black alternates present at the convention.
Although more than 90 per cent of the blacks who
voted supported President Carter in 1976, there has '
been widespread speculation that some might sit out
this election or even vote for Ronald Reagan or Rep.
John Anderson because of subsequent dissatisfaction
with Carter's performance.
Many of the delegates and observers in the session
said they came away satisfied that the president had
addressed their concerns.
THE BLACKS HAD asked that the president
See CARTER, Page 7
Reagan:
Carter s
record is
the issue
in race
By The Associated Press
Ronald Reagan may have been cast
as the guy in the black hat during the
Democratic National Convention, but
he and his strategists are convinced
that it will not be possible for
Democrats to blame him for the
nation's problems.
"They went to a lot of trouble to talk
about me for four days, but the issue is
still the Carter record," the Republican
presidential candidate said before
returning to Los Angeles from his Santa
Barbara ranch.
REAGAN SPENT Democratic con-
vention week relaxing, horseback
riding, writing speeches, and watching
the Democrats on television.
Reagan was, in fact, a centerpiece of
that convention, vilified in acceptance
speeches by President Carter and Vice
President Mondale as, in effect, a
warmonger with sympathy only for the
white, the male, and the affluent. He
was also the villain in the early-week
speeches by Sen. Edward Kennedy and
Rep. Morris Udall.
Carter aides say they will attempt to
See CARTER, Page 11
Violent lookA
Protesters march outside New York's Madison Square Garden Thursday night while President Carter delivers his
acceptance speech to the Democratic National Convention inside the arena. The protesters, identifying themselves
as members of the Communist Workers Party, scuffled with police as they attempted to push past police barriers to
enter the convention hall.
World press
assails U.S.
presidential
b candidates
By The AssociatedPress dent Helsingin Sanomat, said that if the United States
Taadjusts to a decline in global power and "finds its role
The Soviet news media assailed President Carter's i h hnigSrd nprn ra e ilb
spech ccptig rnoinaionas"militaristic" in the changing world, inspiring great men will be
speech accepting renomination as mltrsi found to lead it, men like almost all of the past
and dismissed the November election as a showdown foundto ad t me."
between "two Goldwaters." A common theme in presidents now seem to be."
betweenf"theworldpres."commntarywa that Commented the independent El Pais of Madrid,
inuch of the world press commentary was that Spain: "To have to choose between Carter and
Americans faces lackluster choice of candidstes' Reagap in a moment of national and world crisis and
"The fact that such a talented and vital society as in a time of danger and fear is an authentic
America cannot offer itself and its allies better alter- calamity."
natives may affect U.S.-West European relations in From the communist point of view, as expressed by
the future and will probably be the most important Czechoslovakia's Rude Pravo newspaper, the
result of this year's election," editorialized the in- American voter this November "can choose, but no
dependent Aftenpostennewspaper of Oslo, Norway. matter whom he chooses, he is electing an adminis-
FINLAND'S LARGEST newspaper, the indepen- See CANDIDATES, Page 9
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