Down the Road

THE PRESIDENCY

The Democratic National Convention is still some 16 months away, the next presidential election 20 months distant. Nonetheless, until Lyndon Johnson chooses to announce his plans for 1968, he can expect to be questioned about them at just about every press conference--as he was last week.

Marianne Means, the Hearst papers' comely White House correspondent, opened the season, reminding Johnson of a "historical precedent" unearthed by Theodore Sorensen, President Kennedy's speechwriter. None of the Vice Presidents who have occupied the White House on the death of a President, noted Sorensen, have ever sought re-election to a second consecutive full term.* Would Johnson follow that custom? Grinning slyly, the President replied: "I didn't know there had been that much speculation about it. I think that, down the road several months from now, there will be an appropriate time for an announcement of what my future plans are."

If the announcement comes in "several months' " time, it will almost have to be yes. Meanwhile, Johnson all but gave the nod to Hubert Humphrey as his running mate. "I have never known a public servant that 1 worked better with, or for whom I had more admiration, or who I thought was more entitled to the public trust than the Vice President," said Johnson. "I felt that way when 1 asked the convention in Atlantic City to select him, and I feel even stronger about it today."

* Of the seven who preceded Johnson, only Theodore Roosevelt sought a second full term, but that was when he attempted a comeback in 1912, nearly four years after he left the White House.

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