'We Need to Heal'

The administration says this is the most careful war and they have worked hard to avoid the loss of civilian life.

I don't think it's a high priority for them.

In 1976 you ran on the statement that you would never lie to the American people, and you defeated an incumbent president. Do you see any analogies between that election and this one?

I hope there will be one strong analogy, and that is that the challenger defeated the incumbent. But there are so many more differences. When I ran against Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan, we never referred to each other as anything other than my distinguished opponent. We would not have dreamed of running a personal and vituperative commercial that would cast aspersions on the integrity of our opponent. That would have been suicidal....

And of course I didn't have any money. We had an awful time just qualifying to get matching funds, which only required $2,000 per state. I sent my family out to beg for money. One time Rosalynn called somebody and they said, "How much should I give?" And Rosalynn said: "Is two too much?" So the guy sent us two dollars. Nowadays you can't hope to get the final endorsement of your party, Democrat or Republican, unless you can prove you can raise $100 million dollars or something like that. So I think the differences are more vivid than the parallels.

Except trust is a central issue--trust to lead us in war, trust to tell us the truth. That's right--and I think that's why I won. But I was really running against the legacy of Richard Nixon and not against the integrity of Gerald Ford. I never insinuated that Ford was anything other than an honorable and truthful person. What do you make of the reports of voter intimidation?