THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, October 21, 1996 TAG: 9610210036
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Guy Friddell
LENGTH: 53 lines
Pundits speculate that Bill Clinton may win Virginia on Nov. 5, and they note that Lyndon Johnson was, in 1964, the last Democrat to carry the state.
In 1960 as Jack Kennedy's vice presidential running mate, Johnson raised a war cry that still resonates.
Boarding a train in Washington for an eight-state whistlestop trip of the South, he strode along, leaning forward, eye roving for voters.
Passing an idler leaning against a post, LBJ thrust out his hand, and the man, straightening, had to grab it to avoid a jab in the stomach.
``Forces are at work to divide us,'' he warned a knot of people, train-side, ``and if they should divide us, we might lose the Republic.''
He liked to start softly and build in volume and vituperation. After half an hour, he'd shed his coat.
His blue shirt stuck in splotches to his big, rounded shoulders. His mouth became a rectangular squawk box in his reddening face as he reared back and hollered.
The train backed into the station at Culpeper, the first stop. Johnson appeared on its rear platform to address 1,000 folk, all innocent of what was about to befall them.
As if welcoming them to town, looking abashedly from under his thick brows, Johnson drawled: ``It makes us feel in tall cotton to have you all come out and look us in the eye and press the flesh.
``Too long,'' he said, warming up, ``the South has been but a golf course to tee off from and now it it's time to tee off on Republicans.''
He told them how Huey Long, when pestered by critics, would say that he once drained a pond to rid it of hundreds of frogs, but at the bottom found only four making a lot of noise. ``Go out and make a lot of noise!'' Johnson instructed.
``If we don't have anyone but you in Culpeper, that will be fine. Give us your hand, your heart and your vote and go out and talk to your uncles and your cousins and your aunts!''
In the middle of his speech, the train began moving. He was loath to let go. ``The Yellow Rose of Texas'' blasted over the PA system, mixing with his shouts. ``They tell me we can't carry Virginia,'' he roared. ``I don't believe it, do you?''
As the train hit 20 mph, Johnson let loose a stentorian blast to the fast-receding, awe-struck crowd: ``WHEN THEY TELL YOU WE CAN'T CARRY VIRGINIA, ASK WHAT NIXON EVER DID FOR VIRGINIA. WHAT DID RICHARD NIXON EVER DO FOR CULPEPER? ASK WHAT THE REPUBLICANS EVER DID FOR YOU.''
The folk at Culpeper heard him, bellowing, as long as the now-speeding train was in view: ``WHY OH WHY SHOULD VIRGINIA GO REPUBLICAN? NO-O-O-O!''
And even as the train rounded a bend, out of sight, his voice came back to them: ``WHAT DID RICHARD NIXON EVER DO FOR CULPEPER?'' by CNB