Campaign Blast from the Past: JFK & LBJ

During the 1960 presidential campaign, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson made an airport stop in Amarillo, Texas. And it was there that LBJ stepped up to a podium and delivered a speech nobody heard.That's because nearby pilots gunned their engines and Johnson's words were lost in the roar. (One assumes that the pilots were either mischief makers or Richard Nixon supporters... or both!) LBJ was not happy about that. Not one bit.

Here's a shot of LBJ during happier times, as a college student during the 1920s. Weird, huh? Like you, I'm so used to seeing the statesmen of yesteryear as older adults, this goofy young man takes some getting used to.

*My sources are here.

Swimming the Campaign Trail

Nixon's recent appearance reminded me of a 1973 ad for Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72.

For kicks, substitute a harmless, modern American into the ad's lead quote:

It is Michael Phelps himself who represents that dark, venal and incurably violent side of the American character almost every other country has learned to fear and despise.