"A big victory tonight, Mr. President"

"A big victory tonight, Mr. President"

Listen in as the candidates congratulate each other—and bemoan the physical toll of a campaign

In this call on election evening 1964, President Lyndon Johnson talks with his running mate, Hubert Humphrey. By the time of this call, it was becoming clear that the Johnson-Humphrey ticket was going to win the election handily. Johnson tells Humphrey of the physical toll the campaign had taken on him. In a previous call with Secretary of State Dean Rusk, Johnson described himself as "punch drunk."

Having campaigned late into the evening in Houston and Austin, Johnson had returned to his ranch near Johnson City. Early on election day he had cast his vote at the local court house and had then returned to the ranch to recuperate before his scheduled departure for the Driskill Hotel in nearby Austin later that evening to await the election returns.

Date:  Nov 03, 1964
Participants:  Lyndon B. Johnson, Hubert H. Humphrey
Conversation Number:  WH6411.01-6121

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(President Johnson): Hello?
(Hubert Humphrey): Mr. President?
(President Johnson): How are you, Hubert?
(Humphrey): Well, I'm fine, and how are you?
(President Johnson): Oh, I'm just kind of broken up. I'm aching all over. I've got a headache, and my damn bones—hip's hurting, and I just . . . I'm just worn out. I just called you because I hadn't bothered you, and I didn't want to, and I didn't think that . . . I didn't think it was a good thing to do. But I wanted to tell you first, before I told anybody else, that you had no orders, and you had no instructions, and you had no mistakes. And I just don't know how anybody could do any better than that.
(Humphrey): Well, Mr. President, you're wonderful to me. We worked hard, and I enjoyed it very much.
(President Johnson): Well, you and your wife, and your family are just perfect. And I was awfully convinced about [it] the night I went up to Atlantic City, but I'm a lot more convinced tonight, and . . . Everybody makes some mistakes, and they've got to ride them out, and so you got to suffer with them and understand them. But you and Muriel didn't make—didn't slip a bobble, and your family, and I just wanted all of you to—
(Humphrey): Well—
(President Johnson): —take whatever little comfort that you knew that Lady Bird and I loved you. And—
(Humphrey): Well, we love you, Mr. President, and Lady Bird. And we've been thinking about you. I haven't wanted to bother you either. I knew you were on the move every day. But we've been keeping in touch with your boys.
(President Johnson): Well, that's the way to—that's—the way you've handled it—you handled it just perfect, and I couldn't improve on it. And I just give you A-double-plus, and you'll probably never get that good a grade again. I don't—
(Humphrey): [laughing] We're going to have a big victory tonight, Mr. President.
(President Johnson): I don't pass many of them out, but I feel that way about it. I hope so. I don't know. I'm sitting here with old Homer Thornberry, and they [are] rubbing me. I've got a bad hip. I've got a—I've been standing on my right leg. Your hip ever hurt you?
(Humphrey): Yessiree. And I'll tell you. You know that I had a period in this campaign where I thought my hips and legs were going to kill me!