It’s Thursday morning, Feb. 14, 1980.
I’m outside the White House waiting to get in to see President Jimmy Carter.
The guy in front of me at the gate wants to see the president, too. He tells the White House security officer in the kiosk that he came all the way from Hungary to talk to the president.
The cop yawns. Everybody wants to see the president. He turns the man away, telling him to come back when he has an appointment. This is not a good sign. I am next.
I tell the officer that I also want to see the president, and he looks at me as though I just dropped in from Hungary too. I’m a reporter, I have an appointment.
“Call Jody Powell,” I say. Powell is Carter’s press secretary. Reluctantly the cop does, all the while giving me the once-over. I get the OK and the surprised officer gives me a salute.
I am thinking that I just might pull this off. I am on my way to see Carter for an exclusive interview which will not only upstage the rival Boston Globe but make national news. I worked very hard to put it together.
It is a big deal because Carter, being challenged for re-election in the Democratic presidential primaries by fellow Democrat Sen. Ted Kennedy, has not left the White House or given interviews for weeks.
The president maintained that he was too busy dealing with the Iranian hostage crisis to campaign, or talk to reporters or respond to Kennedy’s attacks. It was called his “Rose Garden Strategy,” imitated by the basement dwelling Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential campaign.
Ordinarily, as a Herald political reporter, I would have been covering Kennedy, who I knew. However, his people had for some reason shut me out. Also, it was clear that he was the Globe’s hometown candidate for president. He was surrounded by fawning Globe reporters who slanted stories in Kennedy’s favor even though Carter had beaten Kennedy in both the Iowa and Maine caucuses.
Not one to be put off, I decided to work the other side of the street and began calling Powell.
The primary was next on Feb. 26. It was the first primary in the nation in neighboring New Hampshire, Kennedy’s backyard. A Carter win in New Hampshire would embarrass Kennedy.
When I finally got through to Powell, I told him that the Globe was out to screw his boss, which he knew, but that the Boston Herald, so far neutral in the fight, would give him a fair shake.
All I wanted was an exclusive interview with the president. He scoffed at first, but then got Carter to agree.
So here I was sitting with Powell in his office waiting so see the reclusive president.
After a while Powell took me into the Oval Office, which was empty. I am pulling this thing off.
A few minutes later President Carter came in, shook my hand and offered me coffee. A photographer took pictures and then left with Powell. There were no Secret Service agents around. It was just me and the president.
I had not met him before (nor had I ever been in the Oval Office) and was impressed by his gracious and kindly manner. He was even soft-spoken when he accused Kennedy of running a “shrill” campaign against him.
Also, he had no intention of debating Kennedy until the Iranian hostage situation as resolved, and there was no resolution in sight.
He said it would be “difficult to beat Kennedy” In New Hampshire since he, unlike Kennedy, was not leaving the White House to campaign there.
The interview went on for a half hour before Powell returned.
I phoned Herald editor Don Forst from Powell’s office. “I got it.”
“Great, write it.”
I did. The next day the paper led with the story: “A talk with the President.”
The story went national.
The Globe went ballistic.
Carter beat Kennedy in New Hampshire.
Kennedy did not talk to me for three years.
Carter later signed for me a copy of his memoir “Keeping Faith.”
Peter Lucas is a veteran Massachusetts political reporter and columnist.
