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And this was before the '60 election?

This was before Kennedy was even nominated. I remember Johnson said, “Kennedy's staff can give him a statement that he's never read before, and he'll read it, walking to the press conference, and you'd think that he wrote it,” because he was on top of it, and he was on television and could discuss it. Could I get somebody who could do that for him? I said, “This isn't something that you can have somebody teach you, this is something that you have to do yourself. I think maybe somebody could help you get on top of that.” But that's what Lady Bird and Lyndon wanted to talk about, at the old Oison Restaurant up on Park Avenue, which is where we had the drinks. In fact, even after he was President, I tried to put cameras in the Cabinet room, where he could have the Cabinet meeting recorded and he could see himself on it and see how effective he could be, when he wasn't trying to make a speech.

One day, Johnson gave a press conference around 11:00 in the morning. I don't know what the issue was, but he stood in front of the press in one of the rooms in the White House, and held forth very effectively on some issue (I've forgotten what it was). When that was over, John Pastore called me from the Senate and said, “Did you see your friend in his press conference?” I said yes. He said, “Well, don't tell me he can't use television.” I said, “I'm not telling you that, I'm just saying he won't.” He said, “Well, I'm going to go see him.”

Now, John Pastore stood about as tall as I am, now that I'm shrunken [approximately 5'4″], and Johnson was way up here. I remember, Pastore used to say, “I have to look up to him,” and that wasn't something John Pastore liked to do with any man. But, Pastore told me he was going to go see Johnson, and the reason I know he did was that Johnson called me and