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Also the Edges. Only the crudest turn of fate gave Lyndon Johnson his chance, and so far he has made the most of it.
In the view of Political Scientist Richard Neustadt, whose Presidential Power was one of Kennedy's basic texts, "Johnson is trying to be a 'Rooseveltian Eisenhower'-trying to establish a rather Eisenhower like stance in the interest of rather Rooseveltian results."
Like Ike, Johnson has worked at projecting himself as a "President of all the people," excluding no group from his embrace-except, possibly, Goldwater Republicans. "Most people want what you would call a 'prudent progressivism,' " says Johnson. "They want you to march forward, constantly going ahead, but never getting both feet off the ground at the same time. I hope I'm progressive without being radical. I want to be prudent without being reactionary." That is a philosophy that not only straddles the middle but engulfs the edges as well, and most Americans obviously subscribe to it.
Over the Arm. Nevertheless, if he is to achieve Rooseveltian results, Johnson is aware that he will eventually have to risk losing some elements of the great consensus he has forged. "There will be times," he has said, "when I'll have to make difficult decisions between busi ness and labor. I know that. You have to do these things."
Even when that time of decision ar rives, Johnson, being Johnson, has hopes of keeping everybody happy. "When I was a boy," he says, "one kid would put his arm up between two other kids and say, 'The one who spits over my arm first is bravest.' And one would spit and hit the other one and then there was a fight. I try to avoid all that, just as I try to avoid saying ugly things about labor, industry, the farmer, any group in this country."
At no time was Johnson's unwillingness to spit over anybody's arm better demonstrated than in November. He had just piled up the greatest popular vote ever, blurring party lines and dissolving traditional regional loyalties as he swept everything except Arizona and five Deep South states. Partly, the scope of his victory was due to his opponent's narrow appeal, but his own strength in drawing 43 million votes was undeniable. He was proud of, and grateful for, his victory. Said he: "The people are pretty fair. They said, 'He brought us through this, he landed this plane, he did a pretty fair job.'" He also declared: "I do not consider the election a mandate to embark on any reckless, dangerous, novel or unique course."
"Bold New Steps." Johnson does not intend to stand still, either. The major thrust of his activity is in domestic programs, and to complaints that he is ignoring foreign affairs in his intense preoccupation with America, he replies: "I must prove that I can lead the country before I can lead the world." Already, he has had 15 or 16 task forces studying what "bold new steps," in the President's words, can be taken in such fields as urban renewal, trade, transportation, agriculture. In his Great Society speech at the University of Michigan last May, he addressed himself eloquently to the