Word: chappaquiddick
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...latest poll, up from 33% in the previous week. But the Senator still lags behind Carter in important qualities such as trust, and he would be clobbered in a race against Reagan: by a margin of 22 points in the late March survey, 53% to 31%. Chappaquiddick remains one major reason. It seems to be hurting Kennedy more than it did last winter. Fully 35% of the voters now say that they are unwilling to set aside the accident and judge Kennedy on other issues, up from 29% who felt this way in January...
...majority of blacks and Hispanics also voted against Carter, mostly in protest against his proposed budget cuts, especially in aid to cities. Three people out of five cited inflation as a key reason for casting ballots against him. More surprising, Chappaquiddick suddenly faded as an issue, at least temporarily. Kennedy's traditional ethnic constituents, who had seemed most disturbed by the morality issue and his marital problems, flocked back to him. For the first time, according to a New York Times-CBS News poll, more voters said they trusted Kennedy than Carter...
Despite Carter's weaknesses, Kennedy's are even greater. He has been unable to enlist broad support, the early weeks of his campaign were highlighted by poor planning and inept execution, and the public has refused to forgive him Chappaquiddick. Certainly Reagan, who has already won the support of 1.4 million primary voters, more than twice as many as Bush or Anderson, would hardly have been bypassed by party leaders in favor of either of those two foes under some alternative system. Without the primaries, in all probability, neither Bush nor Anderson would even have gained serious consideration...
Exit polls in New York and Connecticut showed voters trusted Kennedy more, an unusual position for a politician still suffering from a personal image shaped in large part by the accident at Chappaquiddick...
Orren's optimism is tempered by reality. "Chappaquiddick is not something that's going to disappear.... A certain portion of the population will never vote for Kennedy because he doesn't meet their standards of moral rectitude...