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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, JANUARY 6, 1984 ..
The high-risk gamble that Jackson undertook in Syria paid off handsomely in
incredible amounts of free television newstime exposure.
He eclipsed
normal coverage of his Democratic opponents, leaving them begrudgingly
complementing him on his venture. When he appeared at the White House with
Lt. Goodman to receive thanks from President Reagan, it looked like he was
campaigning from the Rose Garden, not Mr. Reagan. Long known as a "media
bug" he played the media to the hilt, granting one exclusive interview
after another. One reporter who had been covering the stale campaign of
John Glenn, an unexciting personality, asked to be transferred to the
Jackson campaign. It was, he said like "going from boredom to rock
I
n'
roll."
One of Jackson's supporters, a minister from Massachusetts, said that "in
this year's campaign, the fervor factor is going to be important." Many of
Jackson's top advisors are clergymen, especially black Baptist ministers.
Increasingly, Jackson is shaping his campaign as a moral crusade.
Europeans only thought they had seen the end to U.S. morality-in-politics
with the defeat of President Jimmy Carter in 1980.
--Gene H. Hogberg, News Bureau