''New Solutions Must Be Found''

Although he has not quite announced his presidential candidacy, Senator Edward Kennedy has already completely changed the political equation for 1980. TIME National Political Correspondent John Stacks interviewed Kennedy last week about his decision. His report:

The walls of Ted Kennedy's high-ceilinged office are crowded with the framed memories of his family's glory and its burdens: Jack with Bobby, Jack and Bobby with a thin, young Teddy, Joe and Rose. The children from all the families. An affectionate note from his mother correcting his grammar.

For more than a decade, Ted Kennedy has sat beneath these pictures waiting, reluctantly, for the time to try for his full share of that heritage. Now he has finally moved so close to the long-awaited campaign that his conversation is that of a candidate, not of a politician still considering, as he vows he is, whether or not to run.

The pressure to grasp for the nomination began to grow in mid-July, he explains, when Senate colleagues, fearful that Carter's political weakness would damage their own campaigns for reelection, began urging him to run. "During the month of August," Kennedy said of the recent recess, "I had a chance to reflect, the time to review my family responsibilities, and to think about the extent to which my candidacy would be a divisive factor." He met with his closest confidants, Brother-in-Law Steve Smith and Washington Lawyer Paul Kirk, and he concluded that damaging divisions already existed. Said he: "The things that are troubling the people are troubling them irrespective of whether I run or not. The more important problem is whether we as a country can deal with our problems."

"This is a watershed period," Kennedy went on. "Recessionary pressures will be growing. Energy issues must be decided. New solutions must be found to the problems of the 1980s. We can't look back to old answers." Kennedy is beginning, gradually, to delineate his differences with Carter. He disagrees, for example, with the President's analysis of the malaise in the nation. Said Kennedy: "People are not less compassionate and decent than they were. They are just more concerned with their families. Can they afford the oil to heat their homes? Can they afford food and housing and medical care for their parents? Without reassurance on these matters, it's hard for them to have any confidence about where the country is going. And this is not of their doing. If we fail to deal with these problems, the forces of negation, of negativism and of self-interest can be released."

Kennedy feels that Carter has not compiled a bad record. "We have not been at war; he has had some foreign policy success," says Kennedy. But he returns to the economy as the issue on which he will focus: "Our economic vitality is crucial to the politics of this nation. A strong economy is the best social program we can have. And these economic issues affect the confidence the people have in all our institutions."

Judging by opinion polls, Kennedy is enormously popular at the moment (62% to Carter's 24% in the latest Yankelovich, Skelly & White survey). But he knows he is a liberal running in a conservative time, and he is beginning to fashion his defenses. Says he: "Labels don't mean much any more. I introduced the airline deregulation bill with Jim Buckley, who was then one of the most conservative members of the Senate. I don't disagree much with Carter's spending levels. I wanted $4 billion more for social programs and that's in a budget of $580 billion."

But he says he is not impressed with the polls. He has seen leads evaporate in days and he can recite the numbers: "Carter was ahead of Ford by 32 points after the convention in 1976 and that was a close election. Nixon was ahead of John Kennedy by twelve points. It will be a hotly contested challenge."

The avalanche of support and enthusiasm last week naturally heartened Kennedy. Says he: "I've been encouraged by the response, but I'm very realistic about both the burdens and challenges of a campaign. I've got a very healthy sense of realism. I've been in national campaigns."

It was, in a way, the first week of the Edward Kennedy campaign. As he sat beneath the family pictures, explaining the partial announcement that was heard as a clear declaration, Kennedy evinced no enthusiasm, no great relish of what lies before him. "This is a very sober challenge," he said softly, "one that you have to approach from a very sober point of view." He paused and then added in an even quieter voice: "And I do."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.