The Man to Beat
KINGSBURY, ROGER
The Man to Beat By Roger Kingsbury Washington Lyndon Johnson will take with him into retirement the certain knowledge that in the realm of surprise at least, his skills remain unimpaired after...
...Within minutes after the broadcast, hundreds of students from local colleges assembled in front of the White House to literally dance with glee...
...For they are the ones who said the President would never retire and leave Bobby Kennedy with a clear field in 1968...
...His White House staff had finally been unleashed in a crash attempt to build a national political organization...
...It was an ugly and mean thing to do, and those who witnessed this crowning insult to Lyndon Johnson will never forget it...
...Johnson loyalists will never be soothed, especially those who are politically employed and will be jobless next January...
...Even Kennedy supporters admit that Governor Rockefeller would be a difficult opponent...
...Politics, 1968 style, has so far been wildly unpredictable...
...There had been widespread rumors that the President would not run again, but those closest to the inner circles of the AdRoger Kingsbury, a free-lance journalist, lives in Washington, D.C...
...There is reason to believe, too, that the President's decision was made early enough to be of considerable value to Kennedy...
...He did a great job on the National Association of Broadcasters the other day —gave them 'what for' on national tv...
...This feeling, of course, was based not simply on the formidable challenge of Senators Kennedy and McCarthy, but on the reluctant realization that the President had become a very unpopular leader...
...In my view the next President will be Rockefeller...
...The party is terribly split because of him," he says...
...And it is ironic that those Democrats who explained their reluctant support of Lyndon Johnson in terms of the inevitability of following in the wake of supreme power, are now speaking in the very same way about Kennedy...
...You can be sure that Bobby will get his turn...
...At this writing, the nomination of Robert Kennedy seems inevitable...
...Typically, the President kept his options open to the very last moment...
...Nor will it take the Kennedy forces long to line up the faithful...
...Typical is the example of a Montana Congressman who has loyally supported Lyndon Johnson, but who now cannot conceal his delight over Kennedy's improved chances...
...I don't know how much impact he'll have, but there is no question that the President's stature has grown enormously overnight...
...What finally triggered his decision may never become clear...
...I've been a hawk on Vietnam, but I plan to follow the Kennedy line on this issue, because that's what my constituents want to hear...
...Possibly the most fundamental law is that he who possesses the best organization, the smartest managers and the deepest coffers is the man to beat...
...In fact, at the very moment the President was addressing the nation, Johnson operatives were en route from Washington to California to try to put together some sort of meaningful opposition to Kennedy...
...Conceivably, the President felt that even if returned to office, effective leadership would be impossible under these conditions...
...That is, by avoiding brutal party warfare, the President has cut down the degree of bitterness that may be directed against Kennedy among party faithful in the weeks and months to come...
...Thus, while news stories now circulating tell of a Presidential decision not to run as early as January 1965, the hard evidence indicates that Johnson reserved final judgment until he had sniffed amply at the prevailing political winds...
...The agonizing decisions that many dreaded and all seemed to face sooner or later can now be forgotten...
...It remains to be seen whether the President can, or wants to, keep control of the party from the New York Senator's clutches—perhaps in the end by using his waning influence among party leaders to channel support to McCarthy...
...The Man to Beat By Roger Kingsbury Washington Lyndon Johnson will take with him into retirement the certain knowledge that in the realm of surprise at least, his skills remain unimpaired after four and a half grueling years as President...
...Indeed, about the only thing almost all Democrats seem to agree on at the moment is that the Republicans' refusal to go with their strongest man has long been the Democrats' ace in the hole...
...Senior staff members had also received their marching orders from Marvin Watson, the President's political manager, each one being assigned specific responsibilities in anticipation of the President's campaign for re-election...
...in the case of the rank-and-file Democrats who have never taken the President to their bosoms, though, Kennedy is in a fairly strong position to win their favor...
...And yet, one is tempted to reflect that certain political laws are inviolate and unyielding despite the most violent changes in the domestic barometer...
...Another Midwestern Congressman, also a Johnson loyalist, is less sanguine about Kennedy's chances...
...Meanwhile, at the White House itself others were working overtime to create a Johnson campaign book scheduled for early summer publication...
...It's still too early to really tell," one Democratic leader confided, "but I bet Lyndon Johnson will have one hell of a good time in the next six months telling off Nixon, Kennedy and all of his other pet hates...
...Nixon, of course, must be terribly upset by the President's withdrawal...
...To say that he caused profound shock and dismay in official Washington is perhaps to understate the disbelief that virtually paralyzed this government for several days...
...But there could be no doubt at the White House that the President's nomination at Chicago this summer would be the result of his personal will, not the party's mandate...
...Reports filtering back to Democratic leaders here tell of a rapidly solidifying Kennedy organization in nearly every important state...
...Yet the fact remains that the king is dead and a new man awaits coronation...
...But most Democrats believe he is the man the Republicans will nominate, and the one man that just about any of the Democratic contenders can beat with equal facility...
...The most unhappy Democrats, in all likelihood, are those Congressmen who quickly announced support for President Johnson and now find themselves both leaderless and vulnerable to Kennedy's famed vindictiveness...
...Yet few Johnson partisans here will deny that he acted wisely in withdrawing from what was sure to be one of the nastiest political struggles in American history...
...Other Johnson aides were in Wisconsin and New York, working frantically to establish a viable loyalist organization...
...There is, in addition, tremendous relief among Democratic office holders that the showdown between Johnson and Kennedy ended as quickly as it did...
...This point was driven home unmercifully on the warm and rainswept Sunday evening when Johnson made his dramatic declaration...
...Bobby is very strong in my state," he reports, "and with him on the ticket my own chances are greatly improved...
...The real suprise of Johnson's decision, however, is not its rationality (which is considerable), but its disregard of a larger and more sweeping emotion involved in the Kennedy challenge...
...And at the White House, where despite newspaper stories to the contrary campaign preparations were in high gear, the President's announcement was expected by only a chosen handful...
...There are very few Democrats who are willing to say publicly, the Jong is dead, long live the king...
...And fewer still believed Johnson would have emerged the winner in the final run against either Nixon or Rockefeller...
...Those who claim to know "the real Lyndon" are the ones now eating crow...
...For example, White House aides note that Kennedy has already amassed some 5,000 volunteer workers for the California primary...
...The one difference is that while only the most optimistic Democrats thought Johnson could be a winner, practically none think Kennedy will be the loser...
...Such a man is Robert Kennedy...
...I don't think Kennedy will be forgiven by a large number of Democrats for what he did to the President...
...ministration did not take them seriously...
Vol. 51 • April 1968 • No. 8
