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Robert Strauss
Presidential Medal of Freedom
Jimmy Carter and I didn't have that close a relationship until I guess in New York, we had the convention, and people wondered why I went to New York. I knew exactly why I took the party there. It was a place we had to win, and Madison Square Garden, even though it was too small, was the right place to be. So I called those shots right, and at the Convention, the Carter people -- the President and Mrs. Carter and their people, of course, he wasn't president then -- found out that they didn't know how to run a national convention and that I did, and we didn't make any mistakes, fortunately, like the Democrats usually do. I didn't let them fall apart in the middle of the damned convention and tear each other up. I controlled the floor, where the leftists or the rightists, depending, couldn't get their hands on the mikes, and we kept it moderate, and we elected a president. Then Jimmy Carter and I became, as I went into his administration, closer and closer, and I guess by the end of it, he called on me for everything. And I again -- part of the story I told today about how I grew in stature in his administration -- went in with no particular stature and came out as probably the fellow he turned to more than any other for tough jobs.
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