There is never any doubt during the President's campaign tour that he is running the show with an iron hand. When it semed that they would give him favorable coverage, the President invited the still photographers to come into his car in Hartford--but when he wanted the crowd to have clearer view of him, he bluntly ordered them out. And complying with his request, the photographers ruined the hood of the car behind his as they stepped onto it.
The arrival of the President of the United States in any city is an extrordinary ceremony. The airport closes to all other planes about a half hour before he lands, or, if it is large enough, sets aside a huge area for the three planes which bring the Presidential party. At "very stop high school bands play "Hail to the Chief," "Hello, Lyndon," and "The Yellow Rose of Texas." By the end of the day, Lady Bird had been given about 100 yellow roses.
On the two planes which precede the President is the huge entourage of White House staff and press. As soon as they land and take their positions, a contingent of local press and the Secret Service agents who have advanced him add their numbers to the massive receiving line.
A travelling White House staff member handles every minor detail. One man, for example, is responsible for taking care of the Presidential seal, and he places it on the rostrum before the President arrives. Another manually operates the teleprompter President Johnson uses to read his prepared texts. (Whenever the President leaves the text in the middle and skips a sizeable portion before he returns to it, the teleprompter operator must frantically catch up with him.)
It is immediately apparent that the White House staff with President Johnson is distinctively fashioned in his image--mostly Southern, friendly, and "folksy" in the same way the President is. Almost none remain from the Kennedy days.
MEMBERS OF THE PRESS CORPS who accompany the President wherever he goes live in a world all their own. They know each other well and speak their own peculiar abbreviations and jargon. As soon as the press plane takes off liquor flows freely from the substantial supply aboard at all times. When the plane touches down at each stop, the members of the press applaud gently in what has become almost a folk custom.
The life of the press corps which accompanies the President is hectic and tense. They must scramble to get off the plane and on the press buses on time; they must battle the crowd before it blocks the press section of the speaker's platform; they must scramble again to the buses and then out of the buses back onto the plane. The only time available to the press to write their stories is during flight, and there is a din of clattering typewriters on the plane at all times. Then there is a furious competition to reach the press telephones, and stories must be wired or called in rapidly so that a substantial part of the President's spech is not missed.
In Hartford last week the press had a particularly serious problem when the buses were separated from the rest of the Presidential motorcade. One reporter was trapped in the surging crowd, and he had to be rescued by a Secret Service man.
President Johnson openly courts the press on these trips, and he takes a small "pool" of newsmen onto his plane between stops. He always takes time out at the airport to say hello to the reporters before he begins his speech. In Portland last week, he opened his address with a testimonial to May Craig, the formidable antagonist at Presidential press conferences whose columns appear in Portland.
Most of the reporters who travel with the President treat him like an old friend with whose whims and eccentricities they are intimately familiar. They often imitate his style on the plane and can even be seen mouthing the words coming from the President. In any case, the press is always cognizant of the Johnson technique of handling people. As one 20-year veteran of White House coverage commented last week, "When he needs us he's nice, but when he doesn't, he can be the least cooperative man in Washington."