Appraising a President

"Fine words, fitting words, at times inspiring words," said the New York Herald Tribune. "As he stood before Congress and the nation he showed himself not a fluke of history, but a President." For a newspaper with Republican sympathies, these were words of high praise. And they mirrored sentiments that were widely held through out the U.S. press. Editorial reaction to Lyndon Johnson's speech before Congress last week made clear that most newspapers, whatever their political preference, looked with favor and hope on the new President of the U.S.

Press praise covered everything--from the style of Johnson's delivery to the content of his address. The Washington Post nominated his speech for a "place among the best of the state papers in American history," on the ground that "it would be hard to improve upon it by the alteration of a single sentence or a single sentiment." The Boston Herald was overwhelmed by the oratory; the President, it said, "demonstrated a sense of the grandeur of language that we did not think was one of his talents." The San Francisco Chronicle predicted, he "is going to be a strong President, and faithful to the Kennedy principles and policy."

Why Rush? In some quarters, however, the press reception was qualified. The Chicago Tribune looked skeptically on Johnson's promise to spend prudently. "Are these the visible signs of thrift and frugality?" asked the Tribune, as it ticked off Johnson's pledged recommitment to space exploration, foreign aid, aid to education, medicare and other federal programs with high price tags. In North Carolina, the Greensboro Daily News counseled Congress and the nation not to be stampeded into precipitate action. "Few Americans (and, we imagine, still fewer Congressmen) will feel that even the late President's martyrdom imposes on them the outright duty of acclaiming or voting for what a few days ago they denounced and worked against."

This warning against hasty rubber-stamp action was also sounded by the New York Daily News--which declared itself unable to see "why Congress should rush to pass various pet Kennedy bills"--the tax cut in particular. And some cartoonists (see cuts) took a more jaundiced view of how Administration bills would fare in Congress.

Crystal Clear. Editorial comment also zeroed in on Johnson's position on civil rights. The Baltimore Sun thought that he had made it crystal clear: "No one can now doubt where Lyndon Johnson stands on the issue." The Detroit News, while agreeing, speculated on the impact on Congress, concluded that "Southern opposition has been placed in a difficult position." Columnist David Lawrence, who in his time has found merit in the South's position on the race problem, interpreted Johnson's remarks as "a compromise," and in that spirit endorsed them.

Syndicated columnists lost little time in considering the changes set in motion by Kennedy's death. Two of the best of these pundits focused on the men most closely surrounding the presidency. Columnist Joseph Alsop was pleased by the prospect that President Johnson planned to keep, for a while at least, most of Kennedy's advisers. But there was one for whom Alsop was willing to open the exit door. "Superhuman fortitude will be required," said Alsop, "or a grave disaster will be risked, if Attorney General Robert Kennedy tries to serve another man as he served his brother." The New York Times's James Reston urged the late President's corps of White House advisers to conquer their grief, which had led some of them "to confuse love with duty, and Kennedy with the country." Said Reston: "Johnson needs the men of thought, particularly now when political issues have to be defined with skill and care."

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