Was browsing through a off beat magazine the other day and came across a feature story on Pres Lyndon B. Johnson who lived in the shadow of the young charismatic Kennedy. Johnson wanted to be remembered as the greatest President who ever lived. Well...that was before he was trapped into the throngs of the Viet Nam war. The story gets deep into LBJ's closet of secrets. Let me touch on a few highlights........Johnson was really into his oval office bathroom. He held many meetings with his staff in the chief head. Once he even relieved himself on a leg of a Secret Service Man. He loved dragging in the meek staffers to go over important (for your eyes only) documents while he was crapping on the can. When Johnson was visiting his ranch in Texas, he would invite friends down for a joyride in his car. He would drive down a steep dangerous incline toward a lake...He would yell "Shit ..the brakes..the brakes".....while his passengers screamed in horror as the car dropped right into the deep water! Johnson never told them he was the proud owner of the Amphicar, the only amphibious car ever mass produced for civilians. When his political pals would stop by and gossip about JFK's female conquests, he would pound his fist on the desk and scream "Why I had more women on accident than he ever had on purpose" He might be right, Johnson had a stable of young gals, many staff members that had limited talents!
LBJ loved helicopter rides, so much that he had a vinyl helicopter seat in the the oval office. President Johnson was a real ego maniac....He had EVERYTHING monogrammed with his famous LBJ initials...towels, all of his french cuff shirts, even his underwear. LBJ was a real unique President. When he decided to not run for a full term he went into a state of depression.
The war took the air out of him. He lived out the rest of his life on the Johnson Ranch and was not very visible to the public. I think we will find our current President following LBJ's post Presidency in the same state of mind.
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