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<text> <title> (64 Elect) Democrats:All Over? Or Just Starting? </title> <history> TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1964 Election </history> <article> <source>Time Magazine</source> <hdr> September 4, 1964 POLITICS All Over? Or Just Starting? </hdr> <body> 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. <list> <l>DEMOCRATS</l> <l>L.B.J., All the Way</l> </list> 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 from 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." <list> <l>DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM</l> <l>Will It Lead to The Great Society?</l> </list> 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." </body> </article> </text>