The Twilight of the Campaign

A VISITOR to the family quarters of the White House remarked to me of his surprise at the American President whose picture figured most prominently in the photos that surrounded Mr. Bush in his most intimate settings. Asked to guess, I could not, and neither could any of my friends who have made the study of politics their vocation. The right guess came finally from a friend in mathematics, who always sees politics from an odd angle. He said: LBJ. The story made me recall that, when Mr. Nixon was inaugurated in January 1969, George Bush went to the airport to pay his respects to Lyndon Johnson. Later, when Mr. Bush ran for the Senate in Texas, he paid his respects again. The story will one day be filled in, and we will learn more about the ties that connected George Bush to Lyndon Johnson.

But the connection takes on the eeriest quality this year, as events seemed to spin out of control for President Bush just as they did for President Johnson. The irony is that he had sought, in the Gulf War, to avoid Johnson’s main mistake: time and again he would say, “No more Vietnams,” no more wars with ill-defined missions. And yet, Bush has managed to replicate the deeper problem that undermined LBJ’s Presidency, and produced its most devastating effect in the Tet Offensive.

About the Author

Hadley Arkes

Hadley Arkes is the founder and director of the James Wilson Institute on Natural Rights and the American Founding.

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A VISITOR to the family quarters of the White House remarked to me of his surprise at the American President whose picture figured most prominently in the photos that surrounded Mr. Bush in his most intimate settings. Asked to guess, I could not, and neither could any of my friends who have made the study of politics their vocation. The right guess came finally from a friend in mathematics, who always sees politics from an odd angle. He said: LBJ. The story made me recall that, when Mr. Nixon was inaugurated in January 1969, George Bush went to the airport to pay his respects to Lyndon Johnson. Later, when Mr. Bush ran for the Senate in Texas, he paid his respects again. The story will one day be filled in, and we will learn more about the ties that connected George Bush to Lyndon Johnson.

But the connection takes on the eeriest quality this year, as events seemed to spin out of control for President Bush just as they did for President Johnson. The irony is that he had sought, in the Gulf War, to avoid Johnson’s main mistake: time and again he would say, “No more Vietnams,” no more wars with ill-defined missions. And yet, Bush has managed to replicate the deeper problem that undermined LBJ’s Presidency, and produced its most devastating effect in the Tet Offensive.