TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/election/64elect/64elect.007

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                                                                                September 4, 1964

POLITICS

All Over? Or Just Starting?



     Last July, immediately after the Republican Convention in
San Francisco, the political consensus was that Barry Goldwater
would do better against Lyndon Johnson than most people had
thought. This week, after the Democratic Convention in Atlantic
City, there is a feeling among observers that the election is
all but over, and Johnson will re-enter office with mandate
enough to do almost anything he pleases.

     The new consensus stems from the obvious fact that never in
recent political history has one man held such sway over a major
American political party. At Atlantic City, L.B.J. was in total
charge. His political cake was like the one given him on his
56th birthday -- big enough both to have and to eat.

     The Details. What is the secret of Lyndon's ascendancy?
Unlike Franklin Roosevelt -- and certainly unlike Barry
Goldwater -- he does not polarize public opinion. Rather, he
unpolarizes it. People neither love him nor loathe him. They
simply stand in awe of his considerable talents -- and,
sometimes, in fear of his relentlessness in using those talents.

     Johnson's attention to detail is such that not only did he
decree the nomination of Hubert Humphrey as his running mate,
but he picked the people to deliver Humphrey's nominating and
seconding speeches in order to show the broadest party unity.
Chosen to nominate Humphrey was Hubert's junior Senate
colleague from Minnesota, Eugene McCarthy, who had been led to
believe that he himself might be tapped for second place on the
national ticket. McCarthy got the assignment from White House
Aide Walter Jenkins. He acceded reluctantly, and his speech was
barely perfunctory in praise for Humphrey.

     Then there was Florida's Senator George Smathers, chosen by
Lyndon to deliver one of Humphrey's numerous seconding speeches.
Liberal Humphrey, a longtime champion of civil rights, is not
popular down where Smathers comes from, and Smathers knows this
only too well. "I really like Hubert," he says, "but I know the
difficulty of carrying that load in the South." At any rate, he
accepted the duty, seconded Humphrey, and even looked as though
he enjoyed it. Johnson also arranged for a domesticated Deep
Dixie Senator, South Carolina's Olin Johnson, to make the motion
that Humphrey be nominated by acclamation.

     The Hard Facts. The point is that Lyndon Johnson
understands power -- and its uses. Harry Truman complained that
the President did not have enough power really to get things
done. Republican Dwight Eisenhower deliberately refrained from
exercising executive power, always praising Congress as a
coequal branch. John Kennedy came bursting into the White House
with a copy of Richard Neustadt's book, "Presidential Power,"
under his arm. There were, he declared, ways to get things
accomplished despite a recalcitrant Congress, and he was going
to show everyone how. Almost immediately he ran into trouble
with Congress, and few of his most prized programs became law
during his lifetime.

     Johnson, with his understanding that power is a
combination of force, persuasion, compromise and attention to
detail, has seen passed into law several major Kennedy bills,
including civil rights, a federal pay raise and the tax cut. He
has signed his own anti-poverty bill. His record of domestic
performance is immensely impressive. His nation is prosperous;
indeed, Lyndon's main increment to Democratic voting blocs comes
from the business community.

     In his Atlantic City acceptance speech, the President
justifiably pointed with pride to his domestic accomplishments.
But "domestic" was the key word. Aside from a great many
sweeping references to "peace," Lyndon generally avoided the
hard facts of international life. It has been rare in recent
years for a President, or a candidate for President, not to
give prime importance to America's role in the world.

     Was it also a political error? Barry Goldwater thought so,
and immediately hurled the word "isolationist" at Johnson --
giving back the label with which Democrats had bedeviled
Republicans for two decades. "The eyes and ears of the entire
world were turned to that speech," said Barry, "looking and
listening for the vision and strength that would once again put
America on the high road of world leadership. Instead, the
world witnessed a vision turned inward, isolated and sighted
only toward domestic political advantage."

     Thus the consensus that came after Atlantic City may be
just as tenuous as the afterglow from San Francisco. Between
now and November, Johnson and Humphrey must contend against two
men, Goldwater and William Miller, who are nothing if not swift
to seize upon issues. And even as the Democrats were leaving
Atlantic City, two old issues took on new meaning. The newest
crisis in South Vietnam, with its cruel religious war, made it
increasingly evident that the U.S., despite its outpouring of
dollars and lives, has been unable to impose any sort of order
there, much less win a war against Communism. And in
Philadelphia, a senseless, looting Negro riot made it grimly
clear that the U.S. has a long way to go in imposing law and
order at home.


DEMOCRATS L.B.J., All the Way

     From the gavel's first thump to the last hurrah, the
convention was the production of Lyndon Baines Johnson.

     He picked the stage settings, including two 40-ft.-high
portraits of himself. He selected his own words, "Let us
continue..." as the convention's motto. He chose "Hello Dolly!"
sung to the words "Hello, Lyndon!" as the convention's theme
song. He dictated the schedule and rejiggered it whenever he
felt like it. He directed all the performers, worked to sustain
suspense over his choice of a running mate, added excitement
with his own Atlantic City appearances.

     A Hot Line. Throughout the week, Lyndon spent uncounted and
uncountable hours on the phone. In Atlantic City his entourage
took over all 120 rooms of the newly completed Pageant Motel,
across from Convention Hall, as a White House command post. U.S.
Army Signal Corpsmen installed a hot line direct to Lyndon. Key
Johnson aides carried electronic devices in their pockets that
buzzed whenever there was a call form the boss -- and there was
a lot of buzzing. The contraptions were supposed to work only
above ground and within a five-mile radius of the Pageant
switchboard. But they were underrated: one White House staffer
was in a basement barroom, enjoying a supposedly safe,
subterranean snort, when his pocket buzzer suddenly went wild.
Texas' Governor John Connally was a good 15 miles out of town
when the same thing happened.

     On the day he was to be nominated, Lyndon seemed to be
bursting with exhilaration. He rose at 5:30 a.m., signed an
important amendment to the Atomic Energy Act allowing private
firms to buy nuclear fuels rather than lease them from the
Government, conferred during the day by phone or in person with
some 70 Congressmen, a couple of dozen Governors, countless
labor leaders and businessmen over the vice-presidential
selection.

     Soon after noon, he drawled to reporters in his office,
"Y'all want to take a walk today?" Two days earlier, Lyndon had
worn them all out by hiking around the White House's
quarter-mile oval driveway a record nine times. But the
reporters still chorused "Yes!" So started what the press later
dubbed "the Death March."

     In 89 degree heat, Lyndon began walking. He heard his
beagles, Him and Her, the First Family of dogdom yapping.
"Let's get the dogs," he said. "They- all heard you talkin' and
they want to go too." On his fourth lap around the driveway,
the President turned the panting beagles over to a Secret
Service man, explained, "They're gettin' hot." So were the 60
reporters, but Lyndon loped on, talking about the convention.
"John Pastore was just excellent," said Johnson, who had
personally phoned the Rhode Island Senator to congratulate him
after his keynote address. "My barber told me Pastore's talk
stirred him up, made him proud to be an American." He thought
Oklahoma's Representative Carl Albert, the convention's platform
committee chairman, had done a marvelous job: "I just couldn't
believe that anybody could get 110 people together." He lauded
House Speaker John McCormack of Massachusetts for his
performance as convention chairman and especially for his skill
at railroading untidy decisions through the convention. "I must
say," chuckled Lyndon, "that I admired his parliamentary ability
when he seated the Alabama delegation and he said, `All those
in favor say aye, all those opposed no, motion carried.'"

     Wrong Pocket. In case anyone was concerned about his
health, Johnson dug into a pocket for the report of a physical
examination he had undergone after his nine-lap hike earlier in
the week. Wrong pocket. "Whoops, that's the latest Gallup poll,"
he said. He dug deeper, came up with some figures from Pollster
Elmo Roper showing that he was favored by 68% of U.S. women, 70%
of those aged 21 to 34, 73% of the Catholics, 86% of the
Negroes, 97% of the Jews. Finally he produced the medical
report, signed by four physicians. "His exercise tolerance
continues to be superb," it said. "There is no health reason why
he could not continue an active, vigorous life."

     Less tolerant of exercise, the newsmen peeled off
sweat-soaked jackets or dropped out under shade trees as Lyndon
marched on. The Death March ended only after 15 laps, nearly
four miles and 95 minutes. "I'm goin' to give you a medal,"
Lyndon told the ladies who had been along, and he handed them
newly struck medals 1 1/4 in. in diameter and bearing his
likeness.

     A couple of hours later, Lyndon strode across the lawn
again, stopped at a White House limousine that had been parked
at the rear entrance, unnoticed by newsmen, for nearly half an
hour. Inside sat Hubert Humphrey and Connecticut's Senator
Thomas Dodd, both summoned down from Atlantic City. Dodd, an
old friend of the President's (he had backed him for the top
spot in '60), was there partly to maintain the suspense over
the vice-presidency and partly to get some visibility for his
own campaign for re-election. In the car, Humphrey was sound
asleep. Lyndon grabbed Humphrey's arm, shook him and said, "Wake
up, Hubert." The three went into the White House, where Lyndon
first held a private talk with Dodd, then with Humphrey.

     On the Road. After 90 minutes, Johnson called in the
waiting newsmen. "I'm sorry to have delayed you," he said
matter-of-factly. "We are going over to get a little hors
d'oeuvres and a sandwich in a moment, and then we are going to
Atlantic City." That was the first anyone know that he would be
going to the convention that night. He said that Humphrey and
Dodd would be on the plane with him -- and he indicated that the
reason for his trip would be to announce to the convention his
choice for Vice President.

     The President headed upstairs, followed by the herd of
reporters, who were admitted to the President's private,
second-floor living quarters for drinks, caviar and cheese
canapes. Exploring the place, one brunette newswoman peered
around a half-open door, quickly retreated. "The President is in
his underwear!" she cried. While changing clothes in his
bedroom, Lyndon watched a special three-screen TV unit that
allowed him to see all the major networks at once. "I feel very
relaxed," he told a reporter invited in for a chat, "and even
relieved."

     Before boarding the presidential jet at Andrews Air Force
Base, Lyndon publicly named Humphrey as "the next Vice
President." At last, the secret was out. Later, while Air Force
One streaked toward Atlantic City at 600 m.p.h., the President
and Humphrey sat at a table in their shirtsleeves watching the
convention on TV. "All right," Lyndon suddenly declared, "we've
got this show on the road. Alabama yields to Texas." John
Connally's face flashed on the screen, and the nominating
speeches began.

     Stealing His Own Show. When Connally recalled the
assassination of John F. Kennedy, in which he had been seriously
wounded, Lyndon leaned forward. "He almost had it himself," he
said. "One more inch and he'd have been dead." After
California's Governor Pat Brown finished the "co-nominating"
speech (it was the first time there had ever been two of them),
the strains of "Happy Days Are Here Again" thundered from a
giant pipe organ, and a 25-minute demonstration for Lyndon
began. It had more noise (klaxons, foghorns, etc.) and color
(yellow balloons, tiny parachutes with American flags, sunflower
posters for Kansas, gold-foil sunbursts for California and real
corn for Iowa) than most such orgies, but those outside the hall
saw very little of it.

     For at the very moment it began, Lyndon landed in Atlantic
City and TV followed him to the hall. He paused first for a
planeside interview, then 'coptered to a smaller field and
finally drove to the Pageant Motel. When the seven seconding
speeches finally ended and the delegates roared approval of a
motion to nominate Johnson by acclamation, TV showed Lyndon
striding into Convention Hall.

     On the podium, with Lady Bird and daughters Luci and Lynda
Bird standing beside him throughout, Lyndon "suggested" to the
delegates that they select Humphrey as his running mate, then
took a seat and waited restlessly, often in apparent boredom,
while the convention approved his choice.

     Absolute Monarch. It was 2 a.m. before the President
returned to Washington, but he was up early the following
morning to fly 70 miles via Marine helicopter to Winchester,
Va., for the funeral of Senator Harry Byrd's wife "Sittie."
After the services, Lyndon reached into the Senator's car,
grasped his hand and kissed it in a genuine gesture of
condolence. He whispered a few words to Byrd, and old Harry, who
has crossed many a political sword with Johnson, brushed tears
from his eyes.

     That afternoon Lyndon jetted once more to Atlantic City,
motored to the white stucco ocean-front villa that he and his
family had taken over for the week from Hess Rosenbloom,
brother of the owner of the Baltimore Colts. He entered
Convention Hall after the eulogies of John F. Kennedy, Sam
Rayburn and Eleanor Roosevelt had ended. As he sat down in the
presidential box overlooking the speaker's rostrum, Lyndon was
the absolute monarch of the place, and he looked it -- hands on
his knees, elbows akimbo, face impassive.

     Striding to the rostrum for his own acceptance speech,
Lyndon knew that it was getting late and that the prime-time
televiewers would soon by flicking off their sets. He
unstrapped his wristwatch, held it up to silence the cheers. "I
accept your nomination," he began. "I accept the duty of leading
this party to victory." When he added, "I thank you for placing
at my side the man you so wisely selected to be the next Vice
President," the delegates burst into laughter. Even Lyndon had
to smile.

     A Mandate to Begin. The President spoke for 35 minutes,
reading alternately from his text and from the Speech View
prompters fastened to the podium at eye level. He urged
Americans to "rededicate ourselves to keeping burning the golden
torch of promise which John Kennedy set aflame." He reiterated
the Democratic themes of "peace, prosperity and preparedness,"
promised "compassion and love to the old, the sick and the
hungry," asked for "a mandate to begin" the march toward "the
Great Society." He struck at Barry Goldwater by declaring that
the coming campaign would be a contest "between those who
welcome the future and those who turn away from its promise."
Concluded Lyndon: "Let us now turn to our task! Let us be on our
way!" [An echo way back to F.D.R.'s fourth fireside chat, in
October 1933, and also the title ("On Our Way") of F.D.R.'s
first book as President.]

     Anxious to be on their own ways, the delegates cheered
their final cheer and cleared out quickly. But Lyndon still had
some partying ahead. In Convention Hall's ballroom, 5,000
guests crushed around to wish him a happy 56th birthday, while
Comedian Danny Thomas burbled into a mike. "This is just a bunch
of happy souls who are celebrating a happy day." It was
certainly a happy one for Lyndon. "I've been going to
conventions since 1928," he drawled, "and this one is the best
one of all." Before a 10-ft. by 6-ft. birthday cake baked in the
shape of the U.S., Lyndon playfully made a pass at Arizona with
a knife, then sheared off the tip of Texas and wolfed it down
with help from Lady Bird and Hubert.

     Outside, the party for Lyndon had been going since dusk
along the boardwalk. Irish and Russian dancers, Jewish and
Italian singers performed, 31 high school bands and
drum-and-bugle corps paraded past, and a flotilla of small
boats tooted by in the surf. When the President stepped on the
balcony, the crowd of some 20,000 sang a noisy "Happy birthday,
dear Lyndon," and soon afterward the President called it a
night. It took three tons of gunpowder to light the skies with a
huge fireworks show, topped off by a 600-sq.-ft. pyrotechnic
portrait of Lyndon in red, white and blue.

     At week's end the President headed for the L.B.J. Ranch
with Humphrey, got in some handshaking at the Bergstrom Air
Force Base near Austin, Texas, was guest of honor at a birthday
barbecue for 3,000 at nearby Stonewall. He also aimed to do
some campaign strategy-planning with Hubert "in the shade of the
live oaks on the banks of the Pedernales."


_______________________________________________________________
DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM Will It Lead to The Great Society?


     The Democratic platform promises to lead America toward
achievement of what President Johnson has called "The Great
Society." Its principal planks, and their G.O.P. counterparts:

     -- EXTREMISM. Unlike the G.O.P., which vetoed a similar
plank at San Francisco, the Democrats condemn "extremism,
whether from the right or left, including the extreme tactics of
such organizations as the Communist party, the Ku Klux Klan, and
the John Birch Society."

     -- CIVIL RIGHTS. The Democrats call for "full observance"
and "fair, effective enforcement" of the new civil rights law,
reaffirm "our belief that lawless disregard for the rights of
others is wrong -- whether used to deny equal rights or to
obtain equal rights," hold that "true democracy of opportunity
will not be served by establishing quotas on the same false
distinctions we seek to erase, nor can the effects of prejudice
be neutralized by the expedient of preferential practices."
Thus the Democrats match the Republicans, who, besides
promising "full implementation and faithful execution of the
Civil Rights Act of 1964, and all other civil rights statutes,"
went on record as "opposing federally sponsored `inverse
discrimination,' whether by the shifting of jobs, or the
abandonment of neighborhood schools, for reasons of race."

     -- TAXES. Promising to "seek further tax reduction," and
"remove inequities in our present tax laws," the platform
resembles its G.O.P. counterpart.

     -- ROLE OF FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. "The Federal Government
exists not to grow larger, but to enlarge the individual
potential and achievement of the people. The Federal Government
exists not to subordinate the states, but to support them." The
G.O.P. plank held that the Federal Government should "act only
in areas where it has constitutional authority to act, and then
only in respect of proven needs where individuals and local or
state government will not or cannot adequately perform."

     -- EDUCATION. To foot the increasing costs of education,
the platform suggests "new methods of financial aid," including
"channeling of federally collected revenues to all levels of
education, and, to the extent permitted by the Constitution, to
all schools." The plank also proposes "to ensure that all
students who can meet the requirements for college entrance can
continue their education," an expanded program of public
scholarships, guaranteed loans and work-study grants. To
achieve essentially the same goals, "while resisting the
Democratic efforts which endanger local control of schools,"
Republicans would use "selective aid to higher education,
strengthened state and local tax resources, including tax
credits for college education."

     -- MEDICARE. The Democrats plug for hospital care for
older Americans under the social security program. The
Republican medicare plank urges "tax credits and other methods
of assistance" to help needy senior citizens meet the costs of
medical and hospital insurance.

     -- GOVERNMENT SPENDING. Citing the goal of "a balanced
budget in a balanced economy," the plank pledges to "continue a
frugal government, getting a dollar's value for a dollar spent."
The G.O.P. plank promised a reduction of "not less than $5
billion" in the present spending level.

     -- ETHICS IN GOVERNMENT. "Every person who participates in
the Government must be held to a standard of ethics which
permits no compromise with the principles of absolute honesty
and the maintenance of undivided loyalty to the public
interest." This replies to a G.O.P. platform charge of general
Democratic wrongdoing.

     -- LABOR. The Democrats pledge "a job, and a fair wage for
doing it" for every person willing and able to work; "another
job" for those displaced by technology; increased coverage of
the Fair Labor Standards Act; increased minimum wage and
greater coverage; increased overtime pay; expanded manpower
training and retraining programs; efforts to repeal state
right-to-work laws; an end to "the present, inequitable
restrictions on the right to organize and to strike and picket
peaceably." The G.O.P. platform promised "restoration of
collective bargaining responsibility to labor and management";
less intervention by third parties -- presumably Federal
Government officials -- in settling labor disputes; and complete
reorganization of the National Labor Relations Board.

     -- AGRICULTURE. To achieve higher farmer incomes, lower
consumer prices and lower governmental costs, the platform
promises continuation of present policies, with commodity
programs designed to strengthen farm income; expansion of food
stamp, school-lunch and other surplus-food programs, along with
research into new uses for farm products; community programs and
agricultural cooperatives "to assure rural America decent
housing, economic security, and full partnership in the
building of the great society." The corresponding G.O.P. plank
stressed a hands-off policy by the Federal Government, promised
farmers the "maximum opportunity to exercise their own
management decisions," while resisting imposition of further
federal controls and "all efforts to make the farmer dependent,
for his economic survival, upon either compensatory payments by
the Federal Government, or upon the whim of the Secretary of
Agriculture."

     -- DEFENSE. "Until such time as there can be an
enforceable treaty providing for inspected and verified
disarmament, we must, and we will, maintain our military
strength, as the sword and shield of freedom and the guarantor
of peace." The platform promises to: continue the "overwhelming
supremacy of our strategic nuclear forces"; strengthen limited
warfare and anti-subversive capabilities; maintain "the world's
largest research and development effort, which had initiated
more than 200 new programs since 1961, to ensure continued
American leadership in weapons systems and equipment" and
continue the civil defense program; examine the Selective
Service system "to make certain that it is continued only as
long as it is necessary." Republicans pledged to "end
`second-best' weapons policies" and "the false economies which
place price ahead of performance."

     -- NUCLEAR WEAPONS CONTROL. Answering Goldwater's argument
that the NATO commander should have more control over tactical
nuclear weapons, the Democratic platform asserts: "Control of
the use of nuclear weapons must remain solely with the highest
elected official in the country -- the President."

     -- CUBA. The Democrats will "move actively" to "further
isolate Castroism and speed the restoration of freedom and
responsibility in Cuba." Republicans promised recognition of a
Cuban government-in-exile, and assistance for Cuban freedom
fighters "in carrying on guerrilla warfare against the Communist
regime."

     -- VIETNAM. The Democrats pledge "unflagging devotion to
our commitments to freedom" in South Vietnam. The G.O.P.
platform promised to "move decisively to assure victory" and
"end the fighting in a reasonable time."

     -- PEACE. "The search for peace requires the utmost
intelligence, the clearest vision, and a strong sense of
reality," warn the Democrats. "Responsible leadership, unafraid
but refusing to take needless risk, has turned the tide in
freedom's favor." Said the G.O.P. plank: "A dynamic strategy
aimed at victory -- pressing always for initiative for freedom,
rejecting always appeasement and withdrawal -- reduces the risk
of nuclear war."