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Lyndon Johnson's Election and His Daisy Girl
Lyndon Johnson’s election victory in 1964 over Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater shattered the Republican party and ushered in a darker time of presidential leadership.
Johnson must have known the old political adage. Above all, you have to give people something to vote for rather than asking them to vote against.
On the campaign trail, Johnson talked about his “Great Society,” which at the time must have seemed like an aspirational extension of John F. Kennedy’s “New Frontier.”
Johnson declared war on poverty and ignorance as he ran against Goldwater, whose ideas about the tactical use of nuclear weapons in Europe and reforming Social Security created fear and confusion.
As the ultimate political animal, Johnson also ran attack ads against his opponent, which highlighted Goldwater’s extremism. The most notable one, known as “Daisy Girl,” has served as a template for Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and other presidential aspirants.
As a result, the year 1964 was a watershed in presidential politics. Moving against his Southern brethren in the U.S. Senate, LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 on July 2, which prohibited racial discrimination at polls, schools, offices, and restaurants.
The act was a major step toward reversing the “separate but equal” doctrine that reinforced racial segregation. And it gave LBJ a new voting block: African Americans.
Picking a Vice President
Johnson picked the more liberal Minnesota Senator Hubert Humphrey as his vice presidential running mate. This helped shore up support in the Northeast.
Humphrey was also a good choice, because he was Johnson’s bridge to the more liberal wing of his party.
After LBJ’s nomination at the Democratic National Convention in late August in Atlantic City, he headed into September, and unleashed the dogs.
Johnson hired the Manhattan advertising firm Doyle Dane Bernbach (DDB) – a “mad men” firm known for their successful campaigns for Volkswagen, Avis Rent a Car, and El Al Airlines.
To accomplish the attack mission, DDB produced three TV ads, including the 60-second “Peace, Little Girl,” which aired Sept. 7 during NBC’s Monday night movie, “David and Bathsheba.”
In the ad, a child with a daisy in her right hand counts toward 10 as she picks the white petals. Birds chirp, as the camera pulls the viewer closer. She reaches four. When she reaches 10, a mission control announcer breaks in to begin a countdown.
As he nears the end, the camera zooms into her face and freezes on her eyeball. At that moment, a nuclear explosion shatters the scene with a mushroom cloud accompanied by Johnson’s Texas drawl, “we must love each other, or we must die.”
The ad retains its power when watched today; even though the Cold War’s ever-present threat of nuclear annihilation has receded.
The Fruits of Victory
Johnson’s Nov. 3 election victory was supreme. His 486 electoral votes (of 538) gave him 44 states and 61.1% of the popular vote (43.1 million). It was the largest share of the popular vote since James Monroe’s 1820 victory.
The election also blew apart a Republican Party that had been divided into factions unsupported by Dwight Eisenhower, such as the Eastern establishment’s Nelson Rockefeller, Goldwater, and Richard Nixon, a stalking horse in 1964 who hadn’t quite recovered from his 1960 defeat to JFK.
Why does it all still matter? Goldwater’s campaign, from the lens of today, can be seen as a spiritual predecessor of the Reagan Revolution, even though Goldwater’s legacy remains murky. He turned more liberal in later years, even giving interviews from his retirement in Arizona in which he supported gays in the military and abortion rights.
And Johnson’s presidential term turned darker with his escalation of the Vietnam War following several other legislative accomplishments, including the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Medicare, Medicaid, and Head Start.