A consummate politician who vowed at the age of twelve that he would one day be president, Lyndon Johnson was a cantankerous, brilliant, larger-than-life political steamroller.  He rose to become the nation's most powerful senator before he was elected vice president on the Democratic ticket with Massachusetts' John Kennedy.  Kennedy's death at the hand of an assassin put Johnson in the White House at last—but in the seemingly impossible position of replacing a martyred and uniquely glamorous predecessor.  Undaunted, Johnson launched a barrage of liberal programs he called "The Great Society," an amalgam of economic, social, and civil rights initiatives that was designed to do no less than remake American society.  His administration became mired in the morass of the Vietnam War, however, and he ultimately declined to run for a second term.

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THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT
Program 4: "The Professional Politician"

"We forget that, in our nation's early years, taking part in political affairs was considered a duty and an honor," says narrator Hugh Sidey of Time magazine, "but not a way of life."  It was not long, however, before the professional politicians, and the parties they represented, began to find their way to the White House.  While the skills necessary for political success can be helpful to a president, they are not in themselves sufficient to guarantee success in the office.  This hour traces the presidencies of four political professionals, one of whom was also a great statesman.

A word about this show from the producers. 

For lesson plans developed for this program, go to Lessons on the Series.
For discussion questions on the featured presidents in this program, go to Issues to Ponder.

One of the architects of what would become the Democratic Party, Martin Van Buren was a politician to his fingertips.  Dapper, persuasive, skilled at mustering coalitions and gifted at intrigue, he was sensitive to a change in the direction of the wind.  Sensing that Andrew Jackson would win the presidency, Van Buren allied himself with Old Hickory, and was all but designated by Jackson as his successor.  Almost immediately he found himself confronted with a crushing economic depression, and his inability to cope with it doomed him to a resounding defeat in his pursuit of a second term.

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Buchanan was a prominent constitutional lawyer but he lacked the almost supernatural powers that would have been required to hold together a nation on the brink of civil war.  His tumultuous term was marked by John Brown's insurrection, terrorism in Kansas, and the defection of a number of Southern states from the Union.  "He was a lonely, limited man," says political scientist Richard Neustadt, "who mistook politics for statesmanship."  When he departed the office, Buchanan characterized the presidency as "a crown of thorns," and left the nation's problems to his successor, Abraham Lincoln.

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The awful task of presiding over a country that was ripping itself in two fell to a gangling, relatively unknown lawyer from Illinois.  An intensely ambitious man who single-mindedly steered himself to the presidency, Lincoln held the sanctity of the Union above all—even the Constitution.  He had no qualms about challenging the limits that the document imposed on the president's powers.  Unlike Buchanan, he confronted political conflict rather than trying to avoid it.  In an era of political rhetoric that was often long-winded or hot-headed, he produced political oratory that is among the finest in American history.  By the time he fell to an assassin's bullet, he had managed to keep the nation whole and had ridded it of the cancer of slavery.

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Martin Van Buren (1837–41):  "The Little Magician"

James Buchanan (1857–61):  Avoiding Conflict

Abraham Lincoln (1861–5):  Politics with a Purpose

Lyndon B. Johnson (1963–8):  The Art of Political Bluster