POTUS 37 Richard Nixon hits back at the press

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President Obama's one term?

By Pablo Fanque
All This Is That National Affairs Editor

"If the president goes down the reelection road, we are guaranteed two years of political gridlock at a time when we can ill afford it," Pat Caddell and Doug Schoen wrote in yesterday's Washington Post. "But by explicitly saying he will be a one-term president, Obama can deliver on his central campaign promise of 2008, draining the poison from our culture of polarization and ending the resentment and division that have eroded our national identity and common purpose."

Really? I like the premise (and it is not unprecedented....just ask LBJ--the last voluntary one-term President), but what would really happen is that the GOP would see this as the ultimate capitulation and weakness and would then proceed to steamroll the President for the next two years, leaving us in worse shape than if he went ahead with what to some might seem to be a futile campaign and election.  Or, I guess, he could "pull a Palin," and just quit now and leave Hillary and Smilin' Joe to sort out the mess...

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President Lyndon Baines Johnson orders trousers from Joe Haggar

Thanks to Bill Schneider for pointing this out. It's been a while since we've written anything about LBJ. It's not The Johnson Treatment exactly, but LBJ puts the Haggars through their paces! It's classic Lyndon--at once imperial, demanding, profane, and fawning. If you'd like to hear the fascinating audio tape of this call, click here.

Earlier articles on LBJ appearing on All This Is That:

The Johnson Treatment

LBJ and Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King meet up

LBJ howls like a dog

Another good LBJ photo

And another. . .

One of the heroes and villains paintings

LBJ In A Characteristic Pose

Running Mates: Senators Lyndon Johnson And JFK

The Johnson Treatment, Part 6: The Hump and Senator Russell get the treatment

The Johnson Treatment, Part 5: Senator Richard Russell (Dem., Georgia) Undergoes The Treatment

The Johnson Treatment, Part 4: President Johnson Gives The Treatment To Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas

The Johnson Treatment, Part 3: LBJ Gives Eartha Kitt The Treatment

The Johnson Treatment, Part 2: Richard M. Nixon, Republican Presidential Front-runner Gets The Treatment

He's Not Close Enough To Give Him The Johnson Treatment, But LBJ Appears To Be Answering A Pointed Question From Dan Rather

This is the White House transcript of an Aug. 9, 1964 conversation between President Lyndon Johnson and Joe Haggar:


Operator: Go ahead sir

LBJ: Mr. Haggar?

JH: Yes this is Joe Haggar

LBJ: Joe, is your father the one that makes clothes?

JH: Yes sir - we're all together

LBJ: Uh huh. You all made me some real lightweight slacks, uh, that he just made up on his own and sent to me 3 or 4 months ago. There's a light brown and a light green, a rather soft green, a soft brown.

JH: Yes sir

LBJ: and they're real lightweight now and I need about six pairs for summer wear.

JH: yes sir

LBJ: I want a couple, maybe three of the light brown kind of a almost powder color like a powder on a ladies face. Then they were some green and some light pair, if you had a blue in that or a black, then I'd have one blue and one black. I need about six pairs to wear around in the evening when I come in from work

JH: yes sir

LBJ: I need...they're about a half a inch too tight in the waist.

JH: Do you recall sir the exact size, I just want to make sure we get them right for you

LBJ: No, I don't know - you all just guessed at 'em I think, some - wouldn't you the measurement there?

JH: we can find it for you

LBJ: well I can send you a pair. I want them half a inch larger in the waist than they were before except I want two or three inches of stuff left back in there so I can take them up. I vary ten or 15 pounds a month.

JH: alright sir

LBJ: So leave me at least two and a half, three inches in the back where I can let them out or take them up. And make these a half an inch bigger in the waist. And make the pockets at least an inch longer, my money, my knife, everything falls out - wait just a minute.

Operator: Would you hold on a minute please?

[conversation on hold for two minutes]

LBJ: Now the pockets, when you sit down, everything falls out, your money, your knife, everything, so I need at least another inch in the pockets. And another thing - the crotch, down where your nuts hang - is always a little too tight, so when you make them up, give me an inch that I can let out there, uh because they cut me, it's just like riding a wire fence. These are almost, these are the best I've had anywhere in the United States,

JH: Fine

LBJ: But, uh when I gain a little weight they cut me under there. So, leave me , you never do have much of margin there. See if you can't leave me an inch from where the zipper (burps) ends, round, under my, back to my bunghole, so I can let it out there if I need to.

JH: Right

LBJ: Now be sure you have the best zippers in them. These are good that I have. If you get those to me I would sure be grateful

JH: Fine, Now where would you like them sent please?

LBJ: White House.

JH: Fine

LBJ: Now, uh, I don't guess there is any chance of getting a very lightweight shirt, sport shirt to go with that slack, is there? That same color?

JH: We don't make them, but we can have them made up for you.

LBJ: If you might look around, I wear about a 17, extra long.

JH: Would you like in the same fabric?

LBJ: Yeah I sure would, I don't know whether that's too heavy for a shirt.

JH: I think it'd be too heavy for a shirt.

LBJ: I sure want the lightest I can, in the same color or matching it. If you don't mind, find me somebody up there who makes good shirts and make a shirt to match each one of them and if they're good, we'll order some more.

JH: Fine

LBJ: I just sure will appreciate this, I need it more than anything. And uh, now that's a..about it. I guess I could get a jacket made outta that if I wanted to, couldn't I?

JH: I think that - didn't Sam Haggar have some jackets made?

LBJ: Yeah you sent me some jackets some earlier, but they were way too short. They hit me about halfway down my belly. I have a much longer waist. But I thought if they had material like that and somebody could make me a jacket, I'd sent them a sample to copy from.

JH: Well I tell you what, you send us this, we'll find someone to make it

LBJ: - ok

JH: We'll supply the material to match it

LBJ: Ok, I'll do that. Uh now, how do I - can you give this boy the address because I'm running to a funeral and give this boy the address to where we can send the trousers - don't worry, you'll get the measurements out of them and add a half an inch to the back and an give us couple of an inch to the pockets and a inch underneath to we can let them out.

JH: What you 'd like is a little more stride in the crotch

LBJ: Yeah that's right. What I'd like is to give me a half a inch more then leave me some more. Ok here he is.

JH: Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed the others

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President Bush finally beats Nixon & becomes the most unpopular President of All Time

click to enlarge - copyright (c) 2007 by All This Is That

The most recent USA TODAY/Gallup survey tells us something many of us already knew. That President George W. Bush is even less popular than President Nixon was at his very nadir.


President Bush sits today with a 31% approval rating . But even more signficantly, and for the first time polling history, 50% of those polled said they "strongly disapprove" of the president.

Yes, The President has even whupped Dick Nixon, who at his low (in 1974 in the throes of Watergate), shortly before his resignation, hit a 48% disapproval rating.

You can use the search box in the left hand corner of the blog to search for one of the hundreds of articles on Presidents Nixon and Bush that have appeared in All This Is That....

Mission accomplished: I beat Dick!

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Poem: Why I won't run for President

Because of my past
And because of my present
Because who knows what might come out
Because I will say almost anything for a laugh
Because who has the time to raise $200 million
Because I would work to repeal the 2nd amentment
Because I would also work to repeal the 22nd amendment
Because much of my platform begins "mass involuntary _____"
Because I would mandate mandatory music at least five hours a day
Because we could never build enough holding tanks, prisons, camps, and islands of exile
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Hillary Clinton and John Edwards caught on a live mike scheming how to eliminate some of their opponents from debates

I always love these "hot mike" incidents on the campaign trail! In this case, however, it was probably not a hot mike, but a shotgun mike trained on them from some distance away. . .by our good friends at Fox "News." An A.P. story gives a few more details.

Democrats John Edwards and Hillary Rodham Clinton were caught yesterday by Fox News microphones discussing a plan to limit future joint appearances and cut out some of whom they consider to be lesser rivals and also-rans.

Edwards: "We should try to have a more serious and a smaller group."
Clinton: "We've got to cut the number" and "they're not serious."

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"MISSION ACCOMPLISHED"

click to enlarge - the photo's provenance is unknown

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