Franklin D. Roosevelt Letter to the 1940 Democratic Convention Declining to be Nominated

[graham4anything]

5. you know what is a shame? LBJ did the same thing, but...

Last edited Wed Nov 14, 2012, 09:43 AM - Edit history (1)

LBJ did the same thing. He said he was not running because of the damn war (which IMHO would have been the same no matter who was in office), and they just let him go without pleading.

It is too damn bad the democrats didn't beg him 100 times to reconsider
(both before and after Bobby died in 1968).

Bobby would not have run had he run, and Bobby might just still be alive today, having served as President AFTER LBJ's 4 more years. (and LBJ would easily have defeated McCarthy and NIxon, though might have been a nasty race).

(but please forget the war here).

LBJ was as liberal and progressive as can be and also the single strongest democrat at that time(and probably any time since then.)

I firmly believe it would have been a brutal battle, but LBJ would have secured more votes than HHH ever did, and defeated Richard Nixon (or whomever the repubs threw at him.)

But it is hard to compare then and now, because of course, had we had the media now, would FDR ever have been allowed to run in the first place, with the 2012 vapid society we live in, the first thing he might not have overcome was his handicap.

(personal note-I was in DC a few weeks prior to election,(not having been there since the 1990s) and saw for the first time the second FDR memorial, and I couldn't believe and was so proud to see the family had added FDR in statue form in a wheelchair. Bravo to his family for having the real courage to
show FDR as he was. )