With a serious expression on his face, the President looked directly into the camera and spoke these famous words: “I will not seek and I will not acceptthe nomination of my party for another term as your chairman.”
Lyndon Johnson made this statement at the top of his nationally televised address on the Vietnam War on March 31, 1968. Those words resonate loudly today as pundits remember them following Joe Biden's withdrawal from the 2024 presidential election.
Like Biden, Johnson was an incumbent Democratic president who was eligible for one more term. Both men were aware of their possibilities of re-election and each selected not to hunt re-election. Their decisions shape their legacies as presidents who, while that they had impressive accomplishments, were unable to take care of power for long periods of time.
As writer of “The men and the momenta brief narrative history of the 1968 presidential election, I also considered these parallels. But I feel we are able to learn more from the differences within the circumstances of Biden's and Johnson's withdrawals. They illustrate the high hurdles that the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate, Vice President Kamala Harrismust now be clarified and at the identical time send an indication of hope for the Democratic Party.
When they did
An necessary difference between Johnson and Biden was the character and timing of their decisions.
Johnson made his decision to not run for a second full term on his own, five months before the Democratic National Convention. It surprised everyone. No one had expected this larger-than-life president – the driving force behind an enormous list of liberal government programs generally known as Great company, and the escalation of the Vietnam War – led to a voluntary renunciation of power.
But Johnson suffered from the introduction of communist forces Tet Offensive against US troops in Vietnam. At home he was under fire from critics on the best and the left. He realized he could now not construct consensus in Congress. He argued that he could spend his last yr in office attempting to make peace in Vietnam.
This election allowed other candidates to compete for the delegates, from his loyal vice chairman, Hubert Humphreyto anti-war senators Eugene McCarthy And Robert F. Kennedy.
Biden, alternatively, renounced his nomination long after the primaries and only a month before the party convention. In addition, he succumbed to pressure from donors and party leaders to drop out of the race. his disastrous performance in the talk of 27 June 2024.
Biden's long candidacy seems to have dictated the party's decision to nominate Harris as his successor. Can she craft a message that resonates with voters? Can she win their trust and respect?
The primaries would have provided answers. But these questions remain unanswered for now.
Differences in delegate selection
Another difference between 1968 and 2024 was the strategy of choosing delegates.
In 1968, only just a few states had mandatory primaries during which all delegates pledged their vote to the winner. It was more common for party insiders to pick out the delegates through State conventions and other bureaucratic means.
Humphrey campaigned within the spring and summer of 1968, but avoided the primaries. McCarthy and Kennedy fought a tricky battle in those primaries, each attempting to portray himself as a well-liked anti-war challenger. Then Kennedy was assassinated in June, and McCarthy did not form a viable coalition. Humphrey secured the nomination by winning the support of most Democratic officeholders.
By the subsequent election cycle, the party had selected reforms for the collection of delegates, including open primaries and party meetingsThis system still exists today.
But the extraordinary turn of events this yr signifies that Harris has bypassed that system. Unlike Humphrey, she must overcome voters' doubts about whether she is de facto the Democratic Party's preferred candidate.
Party unity is just not the identical
If these 1968 distinctions illustrate the obstacles that lie ahead for Harris, one final difference points to one in all her best benefits: she has the support of almost your complete Democratic Party, including the incumbent President.
Humphrey couldn't say the identical about himself. His own president always left him within the lurch.
To attract voters who wanted change, Humphrey needed to articulate his own position on the Vietnam War, but Johnson was unwilling to make concessions as a prelude to peace. He pushed Humphrey to support his hard-line stance, which included refusing to stop bombing North Vietnam.
Johnson didn’t respect Humphrey. At the beginning of the race LBJ privately begged Republican Nelson Rockefeller to runIn the final election, Johnson seemed politically more on the side of Republican candidate Richard Nixon than along with his own vice chairman.
Wally McNamee/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images
Vietnam split the party, and Humphrey couldn’t heal the injuries. Finally, on the very end of September, Humphrey took his independent stance on the war and promised to stop the bombing of North Vietnam. “as an acceptable risk to peace.” But it was too little and too late.
McCarthy, his fellow Minnesotan, offered the weakest of all notesand only per week before election day. Ultimately, Humphrey did not unite the Democratic voters and Nixon triumphed.
Despite all of the ideological differences amongst leading Democrats, the party now seems united in its commitment to neutralizing the threat it sees in Donald Trump. Biden will almost definitely show more political generosity than Johnson.
In tackling the monumental task of a late presidential run against the polarizing Trump, Harris faces challenges unique in American political history. If she will overcome them, she could avoid Humphrey's fate.
image credit : theconversation.com