The Time The President Didn't Intervene

In the first year of his first elected term, Lyndon Johnson made the presidency look easy. Landmark bills on education, health care and civil rights were flying through Congress. He put a new justice on the Supreme Court, escalated Vietnam and invaded the Dominican Republic. Johnson could do anything.

But he stayed out of New York politics.

In June of 1965, three-term Democratic Mayor Robert F. Wagner, Jr., turned the city on its ear when he announced he had changed his mind and would not seek re-election. An ideological array of Democrats crowded the field headed for a September primary.

This was no good. Wagner had been a shoo-in for the Liberal Party's endorsement, ensuring the Democrats would keep the thousands of progressives voters who pulled the third party's lever. The Liberals didn't care to wait to see who the Democrats picked, especially when they were being courted by a very viable liberal Republican in Congressman John V. Lindsay.

Now, Wagner was a lame-duck and new New Yorker Robert Kennedy had no chits. All eyes turned to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, home of the only person capable of stopping the Liberals from going with Lindsay.

Johnson was a big mover in New York. Newsweek said he valued the state "second only to Texas as his personal power base." He helped down-ballot candidates with two late '64 campaign swings, beating Goldwater in all sixty-two counties by nearly 2.7 million votes (in a place that spent the prior decade only slightly less Republican than Kansas).

And yet White House aides said the President had no interest in speaking to Liberal leaders, even in private. Lindsay took the Liberal line.

A few months later, Johnson was in town to sign the immigration reform bill at the foot of Lady Liberty. And where did they sit Democratic nominee, five-foot-two Abe Beame? Behind the congressional delegation, staring at the back of six-foot-four John Lindsay's head.

That was OK, though. With the general election just days away, Beame was counting on a big endorsement from the popular Johnson. They had arranged for its delivery at a $100-plate fundraiser with Vice President Humphrey -- there was even buzz that LBJ would phone in to be broadcast over the loudspeakers. Eager reporters met Humphrey at the airport, asking if he came bearing the President's endorsement.

Nope. "Warm regards." John Lindsay spent the next eight years as mayor of New York.

Follow John R. Bohrer on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JRBwrites

Comments

[Ventoi]

Becomes a great leader?

In whose eyes...

the boys who talk the talk and try to walk the
President..

or the REAL people who are glad Obama is NOT 'letting UNDERLINGS make everything up and just accepting it'

[ShelleyVan]

New York politics aside, you make the comment in the beginning of this piece that "in his first year of his first elected term, Lyndon Johnson made the presidency look easy." Well of course he did. It WAS easy for him. He was riding on the enormous coat tails of John F. Kennedy. Most of the programs and policies that Johnson put through originated with Kennedy. I doubt that congress would have opposed anything that had the Kennedy brand on it, given the mood of the American people following his assassination.

[wildedge]

Yeah, that was when there was such an enterprise as 'politics.' Now it's all business and show.

[themodernleader]

The 1960s were still a time of relatively strong and citizen controlled political parties. President Johnson was a down-up administrator who recognized that the selection of state and local officiers were the right and duty of the citizens that would be administered by those officiers at the state and local levels. If he would influence the selection, the people would begin to lose their decision making prowess in selecting the best leaders.
We flash forward to our declining age and we find the political parties in the hands of public servants and officials unaccountable to anybody except the special interests. When Obama, a top-down manager, arrogates to himself the authority to pick the next governor, he is telling the people in New York and their political leaders that wisdom and judgement of character and competence resides at the top with the CEO. In politics this theory and practice is called autocracy.

[rudyinbama]

How far we've come.
John Lindsay was a LIBERAL REPUBLICAN mayor far to the left of conservative Robert Wagner whose treatment of gays led to the Stonewall riot.
New York's then right-wing led unions turned Lindsay's mayoralty into an economic crisis, but he was still elected to a second term, but on the liberal line.
Following him, poor Abe Beame finally did become mayor and had to stand up to the unions to make budget cuts; he lost his bid for a second term to Ed Koch.
In the 70s, John Lindsay became a Democrat.

[Steamboater]

Oh please. Lindsey was just as much responsible for the Stonewall riot as Wagner was. Gay bars were still raided during his administration. He was no supporter of Gay rights. He was finally forced to confront the outrage from the Gay community by NYC Gays and even then, did nothing in support of Gay rights. like some 'liberals' his liberalism had their limits and it always stopped at the door of Gay rights. NYC democratic politicians in 70's were no "fierce advocates" of Gay rights either.

[rudyinbama]

I moved to New York in the spring of ’69 having just turned 21, all of which was some time ago, so my memory is pretty cloudy. Most of my friends were older and they all deeply despised Wagner. Lindsay was in many ways a terrible mayor, but everybody I knew loved him. They blamed Stonewall on an out-of-control and bigoted police force of mostly Irish Roman Catholics. Cops back then were a law unto themselves. Once they stood by and allowed hard hats to attack and brutally beat Vietnam protesters. (The Fire Department was no better. I remember firemen saying gays shouldn’t be allowed to be firefighters as the firemen often walked around the firehouse naked!) Whatever, I don’t recall any of the negative feeling rubbing off on Lindsay – he was the mayor who could walk through Harlem during a subway strike. When what must have been one of the first gay rights bills failed to pass the city council, Lindsay did issue an executive order against discrimination by city agencies.
But as far as being a “fierce advocate” – no, he was not Gavin Newsom.

[Steamboater]

The NY situation today is different than when Johnson stayed out of NY politics. Today NY has a sitting governor who's a failure with poll numbers as bad or even worse than George Bush and who is going to run again. When Johnson was president, the mayor's office was an open race with no one formely mayor in the running. There's also a difference between Obama who formerly represented a northern state getting involved in NY politics and a Texan. Johnson didn't have to get in the middle of NY politics; Obama does, if anything to save the democratic party there from the disaster of racial politics which is always at a boilling point in NY. Better that intervention comes from a black president too. The only ones accusing Obama of racism are Patterson, which is riduculous and desperate and republicans which if it weren't so funny would be pathetic.

Lindsey wasn't that great a mayor either. His reputation was ruined by the same kind of weather-related disaster Bush went through with Kartina. Both neglected to carry though quickly, Bush with Katrina and Lindsey with a blizzard that kept the city's streets piled high for days. Lindsey also had his foray into racial politics in regard to the Forest Hiils housing project without litttle mediation. In the end, he was inneffective and worse, elistist.

[zell]

I need to make a correction to my previous post: Congressman Barney Frank is from Massachusetts. I apologize to Congressman Frank. He is not a part of New York politics.

[zell]

I would think the president would be too busy to interfere with New York Politics. If the Democrats of New York do not want Gov Paterson to run for election, all they have to do is send the following to give the governor his marching orders: Former President Bill Clinton, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Senator Schumer, Congressman Barney Frank, Senator Gillibrand, Congressman Rangel, Mayor Bloomberg, Rev Sharpton and a whole host of other important people. New York business belongs to the politicians of New York. That is a fight that President Obama should not want to be involved in...........From what I have read, certain powerful politicians in the state of New York did not have a problem telling the governor that he could not appoint Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg to be the second senator from New York. Now, why can't they give instructions to the governor now to quit the race?????? This is not the president's fight. It belongs to the state of New York.........

[DinkSinger]

The headline writer, at least, seems to have confused New York City and New York State.

While being actively involved in the potential 2010 state-wide primary races for Senator and Governor, President Obama has made a point of not endorsing any candidate in the 2009 New York City Mayoral election. This may be payback to incumbent Republican Mayor Michael Bloomburg who did not endorse a presidential candidate last year. Earlier this week, maverick Democratic State Senator Ruben Diaz, Sr., was quoted by the New York Daily News as saying "If (Obama) is so concerned with the future of the Democratic Party here, now he has to come out and support Bill Thompson to make sure the Democrat wins."

Lyndon Johnson endorsed Robert Kennedy for the Senate in 1964, despite their mutual enmity. In 1966, Johnson campaigned for Frank O'Connor, who was running for Governor, against Nelson Rockefeller.

My favorite part of the Lindsay years were the campaigns of William F. Buckley in 1965 and Norman Mailer in 1969. Buckley, Conservative Party candidate, when asked what he would do if elected, replied "Demand a recount!". Four years later I worked in the primary campaign of Mailer and running-mate Jimmy Breslin. Their platform included the city's secession from New York State to become the 51st state and their slogan was "Throw the rascals in."

[DasBoot]

...and?