Reagan spreading horse manure, says Carter

Press, 24 October 1980, Page 6

Reagan spreading horse manure, says Carter

NZPA-Reuter Washington President Carter has accused Ronald Reagan of "spreading horse manure” about United States weakness in the world and the Republican challenger has accused the President of outright incompetence. Beth char o ; w re seen as signalling the start of a period o' increased animosity between the two White House candidates as they seek to ■ .> the balance in the November 4 presidential elections. A new op'- ’*n poll yesterday showed the two men to be level-pegging in popularity. Mr Carter, in appearances yesterday in Texas, ridiculed Mr Reagan for implying he had a secret plan to solve the Iranian hostage crisis. Earlier this week, 1r Reagan blamed the President for the fate of the W ’ted States hostages in Iran and said he had “some ideas” as to what could be done to free them.

The President yesterday compared this to Richard Nixon’s 1968 campaign claim

i that he had a “secret plan” I to end the Vietnam War. “Here it is 12 years later] and we still don’t know what Mr Nixon’s secret’ plan was,” he said. “How many of you Texans ... believe tha, Ronald Reagan has a secret p’ n to get the hostages back? He has so far had a good opportunity to keep his plan secret.’’! Adopting unusually- earthy language for a Unitecjl. States President, Mr Carter told his audience that Republicans “have a habit of spreading a lot of horse manure right before an election, and lately it’s .etting pretty? deep around this country.”® Mr Rea.. tn backed off from further comments on the hostage issue and returned to his basic campaign theme that President Carter had mismanaged the United Sta .es econo: y. He charged that high inflation, unemployment, and interest rates show the President "simply incompetent” to deal with the problems. A new national poll , :b--lished yesterday showed that President Carter had pulled

Ito an essentially even position with Mr Reagan over the last month.

The poll by the "New York Times” and C.B.S. News shewed that, the President had attracted some wavering Democrats and gained on his rival among Independents. The survey indicated that Mr C.. ter had been more successful in exploiting the issue of war or peace against his Republican challenger than Mr Reagan had been lately in attacking T 'r Carter’s economic record. The survey showed Mr Carter t 39 per cc.it support, Mr Reagan 38 per cent, the L.dependent candidate, John Anderson, 9 per cent, with 13 per-cent' undecided. With th: sampling error, the poll concluded that the race was a virtual deadlock. It also found that. voters i favour Democrats over R-| publicans in congressional races by to 46 , er cent, the same ratio that gave the Democrats a 277-to-158 majority in T» House of Repre ntatives in the 1978 election.