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Dwight MacDonald
Peter Maas
Norman Mailer
Bernard Malamud
Marya Mannes
Steven Marcus
Peter Matthiessen
Margaret Mead
Leonard Michaels
Hans Morgenthau
William Phillips
George Plimpton
Richard Poirier
Ishmael Reed
Harold Rosenberg
ROBERT BRUSTEIN
PARTISAN REVIEW
Philip Roth
Raymond Rubinow
Richard Sennett
Arthur Schlesinger
Wilfred Sheed
Susan Sontag
Saul Steinberg
Gloria Steinem
Peter Stone
William Styron
Ronald Sukenick
Mae Natalie Tabak
Gay Talese
Robert Penn Warren
Tennessee Williams
Carter's slim margin of victory after a large early lead in the polls
indicates some of the skepticism with which he is currently regarded, even
by many who voted for him. This in turn suggests what will be one of the
greatest tasks facing him during his first administration: namely, an effort
to restore our faith in the public life and in those who now pursue it . This
is not so much a social or political matter as a moral imperative, but it is
unlikely that any bread and butter issues will be satisfactorily resolved
until Carter can convince the electorate, along with the Congress , that he
actually possesses the qualities of character to which he lays claim . Ameri–
cans, particularly young Americans , cannot absorb many more shocks
about their leaders without falling entirely into a ferocious cynicism . By
now, the Camelot varnish has completely flaked off the Kennedy years ,
Johnson is remembered primarily for a Vietnam scar on his belly, and
large numbers of the young have no experience of government apart from
the sinister skulduggery of the Nixon administration and the thickskin–
ned thickheadedness of Ford .
Carter has an obligation, therefore , to reestablish some of our van–
ished faith in the Presidency as a meaningful institution and in the
