Landslide (58 page)

1
  
“we will never be quite settled”
Lady Bird Johnson,
White House Diary
, 20.

2
  
Just as the assembled kinfolk were about to sit down to their dinner
See Johnson,
White House Diary
, 21; “The Presidency: Whatever You Say, Honey,”
Time
, January 3, 1964; “The President: Spare Rib Summit,”
Newsweek
, January 6, 1964.

3
  
“I promised to give them a wonderful tour”
“The Presidency: Whatever You Say, Honey.”

4
  
“It’ll only take a minute”
Ibid.

5
  
“Mrs. Johnson’s locked the door on me!”
“The President: Spare Rib Summit.”

6
  
“Lynda,”
he called to his elder daughter Ibid.

7
  
“He assumes that if there is something to be done”
Reston, “The Three Telephone Man in the White House,”
New York Times
, December 7, 1963.

8
  
“has done everything but cut the White House lawn”
Ibid.

9
  
“I never saw a man work harder”
See Robert McNamara Special Interview OH: “I’ve never seen anybody work harder nor with more determination”; Ed Clark said of Johnson in 1937, “I never thought it was possible for anyone to work that hard” (Caro,
Path to Power
, 237).

10
  
“Dammit, Hubert”
Caro,
Master of the Senate
, 460.

11
  
Opening the door to the limousine
“Despite ‘Frugality’ the Budget Rises,”
Newsweek
, December 16, 1963.

12
  
“Could I drop by and bum a drink from you?”
Beschloss,
Taking Charge
, 80; telephone conversation between LBJ and Walter Lippmann, December 1, 1963.

13
  
“Man-in-Motion Johnson”
“The President: Business and Busyness,”
Time
, December 20, 1963.

14
  
“two shift day”
Dallek,
Lyndon
, 151.

15
  
“The LBJ phone calls”
Carpenter,
Ruffles and Flourishes
, 4–5.

16
  
“Isn’t that bed a little short for you?”
“The President: Home on the Range,”
Newsweek
, December 30, 1963, 14.

17
  
“We shall be wrong”
Walter Lippmann, “Today and Tomorrow: The Transfer of Power.”

18
  
“You’re the
y
in Lyndon”
“The President: Home on the Range,” 14.

19
  
“the President used and gave away 169 pens.”
“The President: Home on the Range.”

20
  
“Are we now being emotionally stampeded”
“Out of Control,”
Newsweek
, December 23, 1963, quoting Buckley, “JFK: The Morning After,”
National Review
, December 7, 1963, 17.

21
  
“you’re either the party of Lincoln or you ain’t”
Branch,
Pillar of Fire
, 180; Telephone conversation between Lyndon Johnson and Robert Anderson, November 30, 1963.

22
  
“Nobody ever has been more to me”
Telephone conversation between Lyndon Johnson and Richard Russell, November 29, 1963.

23
  
“I’m not going to cavil”
Johnson,
Vantage Point
, 157–58; Branch,
Pillar of Fire
, 187.

24
  
“If Dick Russell hadn’t had to wear Jim Crow’s collar”
Lemann,
Promised Land
, 137.

25
  
“You enjoy talking about what you love”
Lady Bird Johnson,
White House Diary
, 22.

26
  
“I keep reminding myself of Lyndon”
Ibid., 16.

27
  
“orderly, composed and radiating her particular sort of aliveness”
Ibid., 11–12.

28
  
ten different homes
Russell,
Lady Bird
, 149

29
  
the Johnsons purchased a two-story colonial on Thirtieth Place
Russell,
Lady Bird
, 148; Caro,
Means of Ascent
, 228.

30
  
Seized by impulse one day
Caro,
Master of the Senate
, 228.

31
  
The house, modeled on a château in Normandy
For descriptions of The Elms interiors and gardens, see “Ormes and the Man,”
Time
, November 17, 1961; “Summer Flowers in the Johnson Garden,”
Washington Post
, July 7, 1963; and O’Brien, “France and Texas Contribute to Décor in the Johnsons’ Washington Home,”
New York Times
, October 31, 1961.

32
  
“Every time somebody calls it a château”
“Ormes and the Man.”

33
  
In the living room, she placed a cherry-red chair
Ibid.

34
  
“I would to God I could serve Mrs. Kennedy’s comfort”
Lady Bird Johnson,
White House Diary
, 14.

35
  
“When I wake up in the morning”
“The White House: Home Away from Home.”

36
  
“glass house”
Lady Bird Johnson,
White House Diary
, 15.

37
  
“don’t ever close the light out until the very last ray is gone”
Carpenter,
Ruffles and Flourishes
, 10.

38
  
“I feel … like I am suddenly onstage”
Lady Bird Johnson,
White House Diary
, 16.

39
  
she also took extra courses
Russell,
Lady Bird
, 87.

40
  
“My poor little girl”
Russell,
Lady Bird
, 53.

41
  
TJ TAYLOR … DEALER IN EVERYTHING
Ibid.

42
  
As a child growing up
Ibid.

43
  
“I hoped the ladies weren’t in”
Ibid., 134.

44
  
“By God, he’s gonna kill her!”
Caro,
Master of the Senate
, 224.

45
  
One afternoon in Washington
Russell,
Lady Bird
, 119.

46
  
He made little effort to hide either relationship
Ibid. 212.

47
  
“Everyone felt sorry for her”
Ibid., 22.

48
  
“like a trained hunting dog”
Kennedy,
Historic Conversations
, 85.

49
  
“It was just like finding yourself in the middle of a whirlwind”
Russell,
Lady Bird
, 93.

50
  
“You’re seeing the best side of me”
Ibid.

51
  
“Ours was a compelling love”
Ibid., 20.

52
  
“It seems as if one great crescendo”
Lady Bird Johnson,
White House Diary
, 27.

53
  
“Lynda Bird … was deep in conversation with him”
Ibid., 28–9.

54
  
“That’s my kind of program!”
Lemann,
Promised Land
, 141.

55
  
“the way our economic attitudes are rooted in the poverty”
Galbraith,
Affluent Society
, 2.

56
  
“The interesting thing about his pronouncement”
Macdonald, “Our Invisible Poor,”
New Yorker
, January 19, 1963.

57
  
“wanted to do the right thing”
Reeves,
President Kennedy
, 480.

58
  
“I wouldn’t do that”
Ibid., 656.

59
  
“the new shopping centers on the highways”
Ibid.

60
  
“it might be less than $10,000 a year”
Ibid., 657.

61
  
“It’s going to be a new kind of politics”
Ibid.

62
  
“I’m still very much in favor”
Lemann,
Promised Land
, 134.

63
  
“I thought of all the little folks”
Dallek,
Lone Star Rising
, 266.

64
  
“we might as well face it”
Caro,
Master of the Senate
, xv.

65
  
“personal magnetism”
“Business and Labor Meet the President,”
Newsweek
, December 16, 1963.

66
  
“puts the emphasis on all the right things”
Ibid.

67
  
“Everyone in the country thinks he has a winner in Lyndon Johnson”
“The People: The Mood of the Land,”
Time
, December 20, 1963.

68
  
“no budget slasher”
Lemann,
Promised Land
, 141.

69
  
“What are we going to do, Mr. President?”
Telephone conversation between Lyndon Johnson and Dwight Eisenhower, December 25, 1963, $16.

70
  
His grandfather Sam Ealy Johnson
Dallek,
Lone Star Rising
, 20.

71
  
“the farming people and the working people”
Caro,
Path to Power
, 83.

72
  
“I think he is going to come around”
Telephone conversation between LBJ and Katharine Graham, December 2, 1963.

73
  
“Let’s go join them!”
Sorensen,
Counselor
, 378.

74
  
“The time has come to organize a national assault”
Schlesinger, “A Eulogy for JFK,”
Saturday Evening Post
, December 14, 1963.

75
  
In his office
, Lemann,
Promised Land
, 142.

76
  
“Why did you say that?”
Branch,
Pillar of Fire
, 199.

77
  
“Johnson realized”
Lemann,
Promised Land
, 142.

78
  
“the American in the middle”
Ibid., 144; memorandum from Horace Busby to LBJ, December 30, 1963, Welfare Files, LBJL.

79
  
“America’s real majority”
Dallek,
Flawed Giant
, 62; letter from Horace Busby to LBJ, December 30, 1963, WHCF: EX/FG1.

80
  
“People here do not like to compare the old and the new”
James Reston, “The
Mood of the Capital: Change and Continuity,”
New York Times
, December 13, 1963.

81
  
Reston received a call from Johnson aide Bill Moyers
Reston,
Deadline
, 306–7.

82
  
“Mr. Johnson now seems Gary Cooper as President”
Ibid.

83
  
“hiding with her infant children in the cellar”
Lady Bird Johnson,
White House Diary
, 30.

1
  
The policy of “staving off a direct confrontation with our enemies”
Richard Bergholz, “Young GOP Refuses Party Loyalty Pledge,”
Los Angeles Times
, February 16, 1964.

2
  
“that it doesn’t give us the choice”
Ibid.

3
  
His parents paid for thick eyeglasses
Edwards,
Early Reagan
, 52.

4
  
“That’s the mike in front of ye”
Reagan,
Where’s the Rest of Me?
, 49.

5
  
“I have visions of becoming an actor”
Morris,
Dutch
, 130.

6
  
“I think I might be able to fix something”
Ibid.

7
  
His children … would find him looking puzzled
Cannon,
Governor Reagan
, 79.

8
  
“My name is Ronald Reagan”
Michael Reagan,
On the Outside Looking In
, 96.

9
  
Just before going onstage, he would remove the contact lens
Nancy Reagan,
My Turn
, 244.

10
  
Come now let us reason together
“The 36th President”
New York Times
, November 24, 1963.

11
  
“Our money in Bolivia”
Bergholz, “Young GOP Refuses Party Loyalty Pledge.”

12
  
“dangerously close to appeasement”
Ibid.

13
  
“I was the Errol Flynn of the Bs”
Cannon,
Role of a Lifetime
, 68.

14
  
Unfortunately, many Americans live on the outskirts of hope
Lyndon B. Johnson, “Annual Message to the Congress on the State of the Union” (speech, Washington, DC, January 8, 1964),
Public Papers of the Presidents
, 1963–64, vol. 1, 113.

15
  
I got eighty-one applauses
Beschloss,
Taking Charge
, 153.

16
  
He has out Roosevelted Roosevelt
“Republicans: Fastest Guns,”
Newsweek
, January 20, 1964.

17
  
Sarge, I’m going to announce your appointment
Beschloss,
Taking Charge
, 202.

18
  
We are told … that many people lack skills
“Republicans: The Poverty Issue,”
Time
, January 24, 1964.

19
  
Mr. Ed
will not be seen tonight
“A Conversation with the President,” CBS, March 15, 1964; “Transcript of Johnson’s Assessment in TV Interview of his First 100 Days in Office,”
New York Times
, March 16, 1964.

20
  
What sort of a vice president was Lyndon?
Kennedy,
Historic Conversations
, 275–8.

21
  
Now boys, you let me finish the Kennedy program
Goodwin,
Remembering America
, 271.

22
  
The Great Society rests on abundance
Lyndon B. Johnson, “Remarks at the University of Michigan” (May 22, 1964), in
Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1963–64
, vol. I, 704–7.

23
  
Good morning to all you irresponsible Republicans!
Charles Mohr, “Attacks Provoke Goldwater Camp,”
New York Times
, May 30, 1964.

24
  
“Ronald Reagan, the youthful-looking former Hollywood actor”
Dallek,
Right Moment
, 65; Mohr, “Attacks Provoke Goldwater Camp.”

25
  
“I don’t know, I’ve never played a governor before”
Cannon,
Governor Reagan
, 61.

26
  
“Well, George, here we are on the late show”
Ibid., 171.

27
  
“heady wine”
Reagan,
Where’s the Rest of Me?
, 28–29.

28
  
Two of the eight years were spent traveling
Ibid., 257.

29
  
an “almost mystical ability to achieve an empathy with almost any audience”
Edwards, Essential Ronald Reagan, 43.

30
  
On the side, Dunckel recalled, the men would stand
Dallek,
Right Moment
, 37; Earl Dunckel OH.

31
  
Reagan … had idolized Franklin Roosevelt
Edwards,
Early Reagan
, 149.

32
  
“as inspiring as mud”
Edwards,
Early Reagan
, 301.

33
  
Republican senator Joseph Ball
Cannon,
Reagan
, 91.

34
  
“Mayor Humphrey”
Ibid., 91.

35
  
“You have an opportunity to decide”
Dallek,
Right Moment
, 36.

36
  
“the so-called Communist Party”
Cannon,
Reagan
, 87.

37
  
“like the cough of a dying man”
Reagan,
Where’s the Rest of Me?
, 166.

38
  
“Pray as I am praying”
Morris,
Dutch
, 292.

39
  
“stands athwart history”
Buckley, “Our Mission Statement,”
National Review
, November 19, 1955.

40
  
“a predominantly monitoring task”
Tanenhaus,
Death of Conservatism
, 52; Wills,
Confessions
, 33.

41
  
“The forces of international Communism”
Tanenhaus,
Death of Conservatism
, 59.

42
  
“a position that has not grown old”
Buckley,
Athwart History
, 8.

43
  
infamous Wheeling address
Joseph McCarthy, “Enemies from Within” (speech, West Virginia, February 9, 1950).

44
  
“rubbed shoulders with boys of all classes and races”
Perlstein,
Before the Storm
, 18.

45
  
“the siren song of socialism”
Ibid., 33.

46
  
I do not undertake to promote welfare
Goldwater,
Conscience of a Conservative
, 23.

47
  
Either the Communists
Ibid., 123.

48
  
“To many young readers”
Perlstein,
Before the Storm
, 67.

49
  
“Shouldn’t someone tag Mr. Kennedy’s ‘bold new imaginative program’ ”
Weinraub, “Mondale Says Reagan Note Compared Kennedy to Marx,”
New York Times
, October 24, 1984; Morris,
Dutch
, 315–16, citing letter from Ronald Reagan to Richard Nixon, July 15, 1960, Richard Nixon Presidential Library.

50
  
If you and I don’t do this
Dallek,
Right Moment
, 250.

51
  
When the loudspeakers wouldn’t turn on
Buckley,
Let Us Talk of Many Things
, 458.

52
  
“Government is not the solution to our problem”
Ronald Reagan, “Inaugural Address” (speech, Washington, DC, January 20, 1981),
Public Papers of the Presidents
, 1981, 1.

53
  
“I almost laughed them out of the house”
Reagan,
American Life
, 144.

54
  
“I’d never given a thought to running for office”
Ibid., 145.

55
  
“He said I would be crazy”
Ibid.

56
  
“I was introduced to Max Arnow”
Skinner,
Reagan: In His Own Hand
, 433.

57
  
“you can win back California”
Maureen Reagan,
First Father, First Daughter
, 138.

58
  
“a day job, not a passion”
Davis,
Way I See It
, 84.

59
  
“She said her stepfather was willing to raise $200,000”
Michael Reagan,
On the Outside
, 96.

60
  
convinced that Reagan had his eye on the presidency
Deaver,
Nancy
, 51.

61
  
“Depends on conditions”
Cannon,
Reagan
, 61.

62
  
“It was a year and a half”
Nancy Reagan,
My Turn
, 125.

63
  
“Money was a big issue in my family”
Davis,
Way I See It
, 74.

64
  
“there’d be a cabinet member or other high official”
Reagan,
American Life
, 137.

65
  
“Government contracts”
Davis,
Way I See It
, 67.

66
  
“There’s no way that I could go out now”
Cannon,
Reagan
, 96.

67
  
“They thought I was the hottest thing around”
Ibid., 65.

68
  
“Give me Barry”
Reeves,
President Kennedy
, 656.

69
  
“In these last seven, sorrowful weeks”
Lyndon B. Johnson, “Annual Message to Congress on the State of the Union” (speech, Washington, DC, January 8, 1964),
Public Papers of the Presidents
, 1963–64, vol I, 117.

70
  
“There is no mathematical way”
Hughes, “The Defeating of LBJ,”
Newsweek
, February 22, 1964, 17.

71
  
“Nelson and Happy Rockefeller couldn’t have been happier”
“Who Would Run Best Against LBJ,”
Newsweek
, January 13, 1964.

72
  
“I say with confidence tonight
” “Nation: Go-Day,”
Time
, February 7, 1964.

73
  
“Out here in the West”
Perlstein,
Before the Storm
, 19; Stewart Alsop, “Can Goldwater Win in 1964,”
Saturday Evening Post
, August 24, 1964.

74
  
“There is no point in saving souls in heaven”
Reagan,
Where’s the Rest of Me?
, 296–97.

75
  
“We are going to have to forget an awful lot of bitterness”
Carl Greenberg, “Goldwater Says It Would Be Party Victory,”
Los Angeles Times
, June 3, 1964.

76
  
Reagan’s advertising executive brother
For a discussion of Neil Reagan and
Death Valley Days
, see Neil Reagan OH, 17–18.

77
  
“good, steady work”
Maureen Reagan,
First Father, First Daughter
, 139.