Video: 'Aug. 27, 1964 | LBJ Nomination Acceptance Speech'
(Thursday, August 27, 1964, 10:36 p.m. EDT) — U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson, celebrating his 55th birthday, accepted the nomination tonight for a full term office by delegates at the 1964 Democratic National Convention at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey with a pledge of “answers, not retreats” — “unity, not division” — “hope, not fear or smear.”
Johnson, who took office on Nov. 22, 1963, upon the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, announced his long-expected candidacy for a full term just days before the convention started.
Video: 'Aug. 27, 1964 | LBJ Nomination Acceptance Speech' (Aug. 27, 1964, at 44:59)
The favorite son candidates who had run in his place then withdrew, his name was the only one placed in nomination, and for the last time, the presidential roll-call vote was dispensed with and Johnson was nominated by voice vote.
With the office of Vice President vacant since Kennedy’s murder, the question of who would fill it was paramount on the minds of the “chattering classes.”
It had been rumored that the President was going to choose his predecessor’s brother-in-law Sargent Shriver but that Robert F. Kennedy had nixed this idea, claiming that he wasn’t a real Kennedy and it would be impolitic to choose him.
Video: '1964 Hubert Humphrey Democratic Convention Vice President Acceptance Speech' (delivered at 9:33 p.m. EDT)
The Attorney General made it known that he deserved the second spot instead, but then President Johnson announced that sitting Cabinet members would not be under consideration.
Speculation centered on Senate Majority Whip Hubert H. Humphrey, a perennial candidate who had run for either the presidential or vice presidential nomination in every election since 1952, and was a champion of civil rights.
On the second day of the convention, LBJ invited Humphrey and Connecticut Senator Thomas Dodd to the White House for an extended job interview.
After a long wait, the President announced that his choice was Humphrey, who was nominated by voice vote the following day and accepted the nomination earlier tonight.
The Johnson-Humphrey ticket would face the Republican ticket of U.S. Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona and Rep. William Miller of New York (both nominated in July 1964) in the 1964 general election.
