|
As I write this newsletter introduction, I’m also watching CNN. For once, the “BREAKING NEWS” banner across the bottom of its video is not hype: A “HISTORIC PRISONER SWAP WITH RUSSIA UNDERWAY.” That swap is supposed to include Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan. Lest you believe all old reporters are crusty and hard-bitten, when I heard the news I got goose bumps, and I will be in tears when the prisoners’ plane lands in Turkey.
This past week provided, finally, a bit of a respite from consequential breaking news. We had the time to dig deeper into stories we’d covered when they broke. One result was an essay by University of Memphis historian Aram Goudsouzian, an expert on the presidential election of 1968.
With Kamala Harris’ ascent to the Democratic nomination after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race and blessed her candidacy, pundit after pundit was comparing her with Hubert Humphrey, the Democratic nominee in 1968. The comparisons focused on Humphrey’s similar ascent to the top spot on the ticket after President Lyndon Johnson unexpectedly declared he would not run for reelection.
But Goudsouzian knew those comparisons were superficial. In his story, he says “we can learn more from the differences in the circumstances of Biden’s and Johnson’s withdrawals” than any similarities.
Among those several differences is a profound one: While Biden endorsed Harris quickly after his announcement, LBJ treated Humphrey with contempt – LBJ “kept hanging him out to dry,” writes Goudsouzian. “Early in the race, LBJ privately beseeched Republican Nelson Rockefeller to run. By the general election, Johnson seemed more politically aligned with Republican nominee Richard Nixon than with his own vice president.”
That’s a big difference from Harris, who with astonishing speed swept up the support of not only the president she serves but the entire Democratic establishment.
Also in this week’s politics news:
|
