SACRAMENTO, Calif. — "My name is Jimmy Carter, and I'm running for president." And he'd grin. Always that friendly, down-home grin.
That's how the Georgia peanut farmer and former governor began every campaign speech I heard during the unique election year of 1976.
And I heard many of them while covering Carter for The Times from early January through the Democratic convention in mid-July. After that, I covered Carter's November opponent, Republican President Gerald Ford, whom the sure-footed Washington outsider narrowly defeated.
