Charlie Buttrey

December 30, 2024

I was a student at the Phillips Exeter Academy from the fall of 1974 through May of 1977, so my student days coincided with the Presidential campaign on 1975-76. New Hampshire’s primary was the first for both major parties, and the Democrats — knowing that President Ford was vulnerable in the wake of his pardon of former President Nixon — were hoping that Hubert Humphrey could be cajoled into running. When Humphrey demurred, the doors were flung wide open for a smorgasbord of candidates whose lawn signs could be seen all over the Granite State: Frank Church, Scoop Jackson, George Wallace, Jerry Brown, Milt Shapp, Fred Harris, Mo Udall, Birch Bayh, Lloyd Bentsen and Georgia governor Jimmy Carter.

Carter came to Exeter in what must have been the fall of 1975, and met with a group of maybe (maybe) 20 students and a smattering of faculty members. He must have had an advance man or two, but he certainly did not have much of an entourage and, this being so early in the campaign, he did not have any security people with him.  I do not recall a single member of the press there. It was a pretty intimate and informal gathering, not unlike a class around Exeter’s renowned Harkness Table.

I remember thinking that he appeared to be a truly decent man without a chance in hell of getting the nomination.

I was right on the “truly decent man” part.

 

 

© 2020 Charlie Buttrey Law by Nomad Communications