My campaign literature emphasized my roots as a peanut farmer from the tiny village of Plains, Georgia. To every audience, large or small, I swore 'never to tell a lie or to make a misleading statement.' I was able to point to my success, as governor of Georgia, in completely reorganizing the state government and instituting an innovative technique that made annual comparisons possible between old and new programs. After much thought and discussion, I chose to focus my campaign on three basic themes: truthfulness, management competence, and distance from the unattractive aspects of Washington politics. the disgrace of Watergate the failure in Vietnam and the misleading statements about the war from top civilian and military leaders and the revelation that emerged from the Frank Church Senate committee that our government's intelligence services had condoned assassination plots against foreign leaders. Still fresh in memory were the assassinations of John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, Jr. It was obvious to me and my advisors that many Americans were deeply concerned about the competence and integrity of our government. Almost without exception, they were better known and financed than I. Later, Governor Jerry Brown and Senator Frank Church entered the race, as did Adlai Stevenson III, who was a favorite son in Illinois. Almost immediately, a number of new candidates announced the most prominent were Kennedy's brother-in-law, Sargent Shriver Senators Fred Harris, Birch Bayh, Henry Jackson, and Lloyd Bentsen Governors Milton Shapp and Terry Sanford Congressman Morris Udall and of course George Wallace. I was very disappointed when Kennedy announced his decision to end his campaign in September 1974 his unfortunate experience a few years earlier at Chappaquiddick was frequently mentioned in the news media as the primary reason for his withdrawal. Our campaign's original presumption was that the major Democratic contenders would be Edward Kennedy on the left and Wallace on the right, and that I could occupy the middle of the political spectrum and prevail with persistence, hard work, and a bit of good luck. About the time I announced my candidacy for president in December 1974, Gallup published a poll that included the question 'Among Democrats, whom do you prefer as the next nominee?' There were thirty-two names on Gallup's list of potential candidates, including George Wallace, Hubert Humphrey, Henry (Scoop) Jackson, Walter Mondale, John Glenn, and even the Georgia legislator Julian Bond.

White House Diary by Jimmy Carter