Regarding that, Carter was downright indignant: “I don’t believe this country needs a president who believes that the best way to control nuclear weapons is to start a nuclear arms race and play a trump card against the Soviet Union.” Jules Witcover and Jack Germond were alarmed, too—about Carter. They detected “stridency, a note of desperation and pleading” in Carter’s voice. And when he attacked Reagan “specifically by name,” they reported, “in the roped off press section, jaws fell.”
