Can Kamala Harris Outdo Hubert Humphrey?

Shades of 1968: a happy warrior vice president steps in to take on a divisive Republican

Vice President Kamala Harris (Credit: Wikimedia/Gage Skidmore)

In an uncanny echo of events a half century ago, President Joe Biden has bowed out of seeking reelection.

Fifty six years ago, in March 1968 President Lyndon Johnson declared he would not seek reelection, citing the country’s division over the Vietnam war. Like Biden today, LBJ faced substantial opposition to his wartime presidency. Like Biden’s disastrous debate appearance, LBJ’s failure to vanquish maverick antiwar candidate Eugene McCarthy in the New Hampshire primary called into question the inevitability of his reelection bid. As a ten year old boy, I saw the headlines in the newsprint of St. Louis Post Dispatch which had just landed on our front doorstep and I knew enough to rush it to my mother.