A VP story about LBJ and Kennedy, just to fill the time.

[jobycom]

I used to work for Ralph Yarborough, who was a senator in the 60s. I worked for him in the 90s doing office research while in grad school--nothing complicated. But I got to hear some interesting stories at times.

One night Senator Yarborough watched a tv show about Kennedy choosing LBJ as his running mate. According to the show, Kennedy didn't want LBJ as his VP, but LBJ's support was so strong that he didn't want to slight the Texan, either. So, he offered the slot to LBJ, expecting him to turn it down. The night before LBJ's deadline to make a decision, JFK called Ralph Yarborough, who was also from Texas, to offer him the job when LBJ turned it down. Yarborough and Kennedy were pretty close.

LBJ, according to the show, got wind that Yarborough would be the pick, and stunned Kennedy by accepting the nomination. Yarborough and LBJ were big rivals, and LBJ simply wanted to block Yarborough from getting the job.

After the show, Yarborough told a different story. He said Kennedy wanted LBJ all along, but knew he would turn the job down, because he disliked Kennedy. So, Kennedy and Yarborough leaked to the LBJ people that Yarborough was going to be the pick, knowing LBJ would not want Yarborough to get the job. Obviously, it worked.

I heard this story the morning after the show from Yarborough's assistant and friend, who watched the show with him, and heard him tell the story, so it is what Yarborough thought to be true. But, the more I think about it, the more I wonder what JFK wanted. JFK was astute, and always had a back-up plan. He's famous for telling supporters on both sides of an issue that he backed them, and keeping his true hand close to the vest until he had to reveal it. So maybe, JFK didn't care which Texan wound up on his ticket, but wanted both of them to feel wanted if they did, and devised a scheme with both candidates against the other. Or maybe one or the other of the Texas senators was right.

The moral to this boring story is that so much goes into making a VP decision that all of these clues and leaks and everything else that people are basing all of their guesses on could be part of another scheme altogether, and it might have nothing to do with anything we can know.

That's my bedtime story. It will sink like a stone, but I just wanted to type. :)