Session: 1234567891011121314151617         Page 467468469470471472473474475476477478479480481482483484485486487488489490491492493494495496497498499500 of 755

“and if we resist the doctors, that will put the people on our side.”

Completely ignoring the polls that have been published recently about Americans liking their doctors.

Yes. Well, the lack of experience -- you've got to take polling and relate it to the real world. You can't just grab it and say this is what you're going to do. Anyway, we're a long way from Johnson, but --

I think history is very interested in what you're saying now.

Well, Johnson, of course, did get most of Kennedy's program through, and I'm convinced as I sit here today that if Jack Kennedy had lived, he would never have gotten it through and he would have probably been a one-term president. He was a very effective guy on television, but he didn't get along with--the Hill wasn't buying his program. Johnson sold the program to the Hill.

Johnson knew more about how to work the Hill. Right?

Oh, yes. Sure. I think maybe I mentioned in an earlier conversation that he always carried with him, when he was Majority Leader [in the Senate], when he was Vice- President and when he was President. He carried in his pocket where the Senate stood on the things that were important that were pending up there. He knew exactly who was on his side and who was on the other side.