The 36th POTUS Lyndon Baines Johnson was born on this day in 1908.

Ten Notes On Lyndon Johnson

1. Lyndon Johnson is only one of four men to be elected to all four federal offices in the United States- Congressman, Senator, Vice-President and President. The other three are John Tyler, Andrew Johnson, and Richard Nixon.

2. There is some debate over this, there are those who think every Vice-Presidential running mate has a huge impact on an election. I am one who thinks it matters but I also think there have been very few times when a presidential nominee’s choice of a running mate helps decide an election. When Kennedy picked Lyndon Johnson in 1960 to be his running mate it was one of those few times it made the difference. Kennedy was weak in the south. He needed Texas. He had to have Johnson. That election was a close one. LBJ made a difference.

3. The Robert Kennedy-Lyndon Johnson feud was one of the biggest and nastiest feuds in American political history. Reportedly after LBJ was asked to be JFK’s running mate, RFK tried to talk LBJ out of it. Their hatered of one another started before that and it would go on until 1968 when RFK was assassinated. If this had been in the early 1800’s they probably would have had a duel like Hamilton and Burr did. When LBJ was Vice-President the Kennedy people in the White House did not treat LBJ well at all. They had a nickname they called him behind his back-Rufus Cornpone or Uncle Rufus. When JFK was assassinated and LBJ became POTUS, from all I have read the Kennedy people did not want to accept this. They showed a great lack of respect for Johnson.

4. Johnson was a big man. 6 foot 4, long arms, big hands. If you look at pictures of his father and grandfather they all are built the same and have the same look. Johnson at one time was tall and skinny as a rail, by the time he became POTUS he had a weight problem. Johnson was always afraid of dying young. The men in his family had a history of heart trouble and dying before they reached an old age due to heart attacks. LBJ was always in a hurry. His big ambition was to become POTUS, even as a very young man.

5. Lyndon Johnson as a United States Congressman from the Hill Country in Texas may have done more for his constituents than maybe any Congressman ever. The Hill Country people didn’t have electricity. Life was incredibly hard for the people there. In one of Robert Caro’s books on Johnson he spends 10-15 pages describing life in the Hill Country in the 1920’s and 1930’s before LBJ went to Congress. They were way behind the rest of the country. Very isolated. Johnson promised to get them electricity if elected and he did just that. Changing the lives of the people there forever.

6. Johnson’s downfall as POTUS was the Vietnam War. His ‘Great Society” program and his presidency went down in flames because he didn’t have enough sense to stay out of Vietnam. He lost most of the country. He would hear the chant of the hippy protesters outside of the White House “Hey Hey LBJ, How Many Kids You Kill Today” and that would haunt him until his dying day. Johnson was an ambitious president. There was a lot of things he wanted to do.

7. LBJ was one of the biggest liars in the history of mankind. He would lie even when he didn’t have to lie. In college his nickname was “Bull” because of his lying. He even rigged little meaningless elections when he was in college. He would continue to lie all his life about big and small things. Maybe he believed his lies?

8. To me the two most fascinating POTUS in American history are Abraham Lincoln and Lyndon Johnson. Lincoln I rank as one of the truly great presidents if not the greatest and maybe the greatest american period. Johnson I do not think was a great president but he was a fascinating man. The four Robert Caro books {there will be a 5th and who knows maybe a 6th} in the series. Caro published the first volume in 1982. The 4th volume just came out in the spring. The books are terrific. All I can say is read them. They are not books you are going to read in a couple of days. {The second volume is a regular size book, the other 3 volumes are mammoth} There are some, Johnson people mostly who think Caro’s work is slanted against Johnson, I tend to think the man just wrote the truth. I am a huge Caro fan. Caro says his books on Johnson are not really a biography on Johnson but a study of power in America.

9. LBJ’s greatest achievements as POTUS was his pushing through Congress civil rights legislation in 1964 and 1965. He was able to pass legislation that JFK couldn’t get passed. Lyndon Johnson used ‘The Johnson Treatment” on people. He would invade their personal space. Stand right up nose to nose, grab their neck, shoulders, shirt collar and pull them close. He was someone who just wouldn’t take no for an answer. He learned this all from his father. His father had been a successful politician in Texas, known for his honesty. He saw his father giving this treatment to people. The thing was his father had principles and would pay a price for ‘not playing along with the game” LBJ would look down on his father, who was loved by the people he served, LBJ would have no principles. LBJ believed in LBJ. LBJ in Congress would avoid taking a stance on anything controversial because he was always thinking of the big picture down the road, the presidency.

10. LBJ had planned on running for re-election in 1968. When the primaries started in the winter of 1968, Senator Eugene McCarthy was running against him as the anti-war candidate. In the first primary in New Hampshire, “Clean Gene” lost to LBJ but got a surprising 42% of the vote. Johnson a few weeks later during a televison address would shock the world by announcing he would not seek re-election. Johnson would leave office in January 1969 and return to his ranch in the Texas Hill Country. He would die January 22,1973 at the age of 64 of a massive heart attack. He looked so much older than he was. In his final years his health was failing and he let his hair grow down to his shoulders, just like the hippies who protested against his war in Vietnam. It is a shame what happened to LBJ. This man had great potential, he could have been a great president. He could have done great things. But he blew it. He did leave behind a fascinating story though.