Word: humphrey
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Humphrey developed his legislative skills, as he changed from one of the least popular members of Congress to one of the most popular, he became a logical contender for the presidency. It became for him, as for others, a near obsession. In 1960 he figured he had a chance. The man to beat was Senator John Kennedy, who was plunging into the primaries to demonstrate his appeal. The battle seesawed until the West Virginia primary, where the Kennedys spent a fortune to overcome the opposition to the candidate's Roman Catholicism. Humphrey's loss finished...
Then came Kennedy's assassination, and Lyndon Johnson looked around for a running mate in 1964. Still the favorite of many liberals, Humphrey was the natural choice for a mistrusted Southerner with links to big oil. But Lyndon flirted with a variety of other possibles and kept Humphrey uncomfortably dangling until the convention was under way. Humphrey was not offended and grabbed the post when it was finally offered. "I weighed this decision not long but carefully," he said. "If there's one quality I do not have, it's reluctance...
Perhaps a little reluctance would have helped. Humphrey was so hungry for the job that he bore the L.B.J. brand with hardly more complaint than the cattle on the ranch. In his autobiography, The Education of a Public Man, Humphrey described how Johnson invited him to the ranch and in the course of the visit ordered him to shoot a deer. The Vice President-elect, who abhorred hunting, did as he was told with obvious distaste. So Johnson told him to bag another deer. Once again, Humphrey obeyed his Commander in Chief. It was to be that kind of relationship...
Though one of the most talkative politicians of modern times, Humphrey will be remembered for his deeds, not his words. They were rarely memorable, but they were invariably heartfelt. They expressed rather than camouflaged the real man. A Humphrey sampler...
...been a crackerjack of a funeral, to borrow a term and an attitude from Hubert Humphrey's own exuberant life. How he would have loved it. Airplanes and military honors, the President and the pages, good old hymns badly but enthusiastically sung, organs booming and preachers praying mightily all across the country...