"STRONGEST TICKET THAT COULD HAVE BEEN SELECTED"

JFK CHOOSES LBJ AS RUNNING-MATE; PARTY LEADERS HAPPY, LIBERALS NOT SO MUCH

Los Angeles, California (JFK+50) On July 15, 1960 Senator John F. Kennedy (D-Massachusetts) and Senator Lyndon B. Johnson (D-Texas) formally accepted the Democratic Party's nominations for President and Vice-President of the United States here in Los Angeles.

According to The Evening Star, Democratic party leaders called KENNEDY-JOHNSON "the strongest ticket it could have selected."

J.A. O'Leary writes that Mr. Kennedy's choice of "the South's hero in this convention" will give the Democrats a great chance to carry Texas, Virginia and Tennessee in the November election.

Some northern and mid-western liberal Democrats are unhappy with the selection of Senator Johnson as the vice-presidential standard bearer.

JFK+50 NOTE

I've always said JFK could NOT have won the presidency without LBJ on the ticket thinking that his narrow victory in Texas in 1960 was attributable to LBJ.  This is the view of the majority of historians who argue that LBJ's selection was necessary to rally the Democratic base in the South.

Looking only at the electoral vote results, however, one could argue JFK would have won without LBJ on the ticket.

JFK defeated Nixon in the Electoral College 303-219.  If JFK had selected someone other than LBJ as his running mate & Texas had gone Republican, he still would have won 279-243.  269 electoral votes were required to win in 1960.

The South, unlike today, was a Democratic stronghold in 1960.  Nixon carried only 4 states in Dixie:  Florida, Kentucky, Tennessee & Virginia. 

SOURCE

"Democrats Hail Johnson As Strengthening Ticket," by J. A. O'Leary, The Evening Star, Washington, D.C., July 15, 1960, Chronicling America, Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/

 

 

Kennedy-Johnson Campaign Logo

www.4president.org/

A MAN WHO HAD NOT CAMPAIGNED IN ANY OF THE PRIMARIES

BEFORE JFK DEBATED NIXON, HE TOOK ON LYNDON

Los Angeles (JFK+50) On July 12, 1960, two candidates for the Democratic nomination for POTUS, Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts and Senator Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas squared off against each other in a nationally televised debate.

The hour-long debate was conducted without a moderator before the combined delegations of Massachusetts and Texas at the Biltmore Hotel ballroom.  It began at 5 p.m. local time.

Senator Johnson had challenged Senator Kennedy to the debate, held the day before the balloting, after JFK had offered to meet with any delegation that invited him.  LBJ introduced JFK who gave an opening statement lasting 10 minutes. Kennedy acknowledged that many of the Texas delegates, who outnumbered the Massachusetts delegates by a large margin, would not support his civil rights proposals.

Johnson followed with a 20 minute opening statement in which he pointed to his efforts on the floor of the United States Senate "while some men who would be president" were absent.  He, of course, was making reference to JFK being out campaigning in the primaries instead of taking care of his Senate responsibilities.

JFK closed the debate by complimenting LBJ on his work in the Senate and saying that he supported the Texas senator's decision not to enter the primaries.  JFK also expressed his hope that LBJ would continue in his role as majority leader.

After JFK won the nomination, he selected LBJ as his running mate.  A man who had not campaigned in any of the 16 primaries.

 SOURCES

"Kennedy-Johnson Debate," Our Campaigns, www.ourcampaigns.com/

"The Great Debate, JFK's legacy:  The party's over," by Kathryn Cramer Brownell and Bruce J. Schulman, November 22, 2013, www.blogs.reuters.com/

LBJ at Biltmore Hotel

 July 10, 1960

Library of Congress Photo

PRESUMPTIVE NOMINEE ARRIVES IN LA

JFK+50:  Volume 6, No. 2004

CALIFORNIA, HERE JACK COMES

Los Angeles, California (JFK+50) The song goes "California, here I come, right back where I started from," but while Senator John F. Kennedy's political career began in Massachusetts, it was here in Los Angeles where he arrived 56 years ago, July 9, 1960, as the presumptive nominee of the Democratic party for President of the United States.

Back in those days, they would have just called him the favorite.  In today's media-driven climate, however, JFK would be called the presumptive nominee. But then again, maybe he wasn't necessarily so presumptive as Donald or Hillary.

Despite being the favorite, Senator Kennedy still faced strong opposition within his own party.  Other candidates included Edmund G. Brown, Sr. of California, Michael V. DiSalle of Ohio, George H. McLain of California, Wayne Morse of Oregon, George Smathers of Florida, Adlai Stevenson of Illinois and Stuart Symington of Missouri.

In addition, former President Harry S Truman had expressed reservations about a Kennedy nomination and had, in fact, asked the young Senator to step aside for a more experienced candidate.  Perhaps, the old pol from Missouri might be considered a "Never Kennedy" man. 

Former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt also balked at the prospect of Senator Kennedy being the party's nominee.  She would give a seconding speech for Adlai Stevenson and in her memoirs expressed misgivings about the primary system in place in 1960.  She wrote...

"the candidates spend their time running down their rivals in the same party (and) furnish a large amount of ammunition to the opposition party."

Three of the Democratic candidates had not entered any of the primaries.  They were Lyndon Johnson, Adlai Stevenson and Stuart Symington.

LBJ's supporters, including John B. Connally of Texas, brought up the issue of JFK's health saying that the young Senator suffered from Addison's Disease.

Future Watergate Committee chairman Senator Sam Ervin of North Carolina, a delegate at the 1960 Democratic Convention, expressed the distaste of a prospective Kennedy nomination by holding up a July 13th late edition of the Los Angeles Herald which read...

SENATOR KENNEDY SLIPPING AS NOMINATION NEARS,  SOUTH ANGRY AT CIVIL RIGHTS

The Democratic Platform included planks on civil rights, immigration, foreign aid, the economy, and labor and tax reform.

Despite the opposition, Senator John F. Kennedy was nominated on the First Ballot with 806 votes.  His closest rival, Senator Lyndon B. Johnson, received 409 votes.  JFK became the first United States Senator since Warren G. Harding in 1920 to win either party's nomination.

SOURCES

"The Democratic Convention of 1960," The Autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt, the Eleanor Roosevelt papers.

"1960 Democratic National Convention," www.wikiwand.com/

"1960 Democratic Convention (Sam Ervin)," www.dc.lib.unc.edu/

JFK+50 NOTE:

We apologize for not being able to get out a posting yesterday.  We had one of the most severe storms ever here in East Tennessee.  It knocked our power out from 4 pm. until after Noon today.  A 100+ year old oak tree about a mile from our house was taken down and the entire roof blew off a new Dollar Tree nearby.

Senator Kennedy Arrives in Los Angeles

July 9, 1960

JFK Library Photo