Big hearted Jimmy Carter ran one of the most racist campaigns in Georgia even by Talmadge standards. This is despite teh fact that the Chamber of Commerce overwhelmingly endorsed cuff links Carl Sanders for Govenror.
This may be a bit of exaggeration, but Carter DEFINITELY based his campaign on an appeal to the Wallace voters and to conservative Democrats in general. Sanders was a part owner of the Atlanta Hawks and Carter used a picture of Sanders with black players on the Hawks in a way that said "Look who he hangs with!".
In his last book
America In Search of Itself, Theodore H. White examined Carter's downfall, talking about the "slick and gimmicky" Carter as one of Carter's personas (along with the Yeoman Carter and the Religious Carter). And Carter took on a number of personas and switched between them throughout his career, and even after his Presidency. He was the nice young man in the 1966 Governor's race, but he was, very much, the heir to Lester Maddox in the 1970 race, only to switch abruptly to a "New South" Governor at his inaugural address. His pronouncement that " . . . the time for racial discrimination is over . . ." was something no one saw coming. I am certain he was thinking of being President then. He was something of a national Democrat in 1972, avoiding endorsing Wallace (which he saw as a dead end), but opposing McGovern and supporting Jackson, saying nasty and uncomplimentary things about McGovern even when not asked, but asking Scoop Jackson to suggest to McGovern to pick him as his running mate when it was all over. He was exceptionally astute in seeing what it took to be nominated and elected as a Democrat, but he was not as astute in seeing what was needed to govern successfully as the President from the more liberal party that maintained its majorities by elections a noted minority of conservative members from his home region.
The 1970 Carter was, indeed, the "slick and gimmicky" Carter. He had no record and could be expected to keep his promises. When he ran for President, he had a record, and he balanced conservative and liberal themes. He also showed the limitations of that strategy, and the problems in governing that way, the main one being that everything is a compromise and no one is really happy with you.
