Columnists: More Blondin, Less Lincoln

Presidents are usually safe in quoting Abe Lincoln, and few have made more use of Honest Abe than Lyndon Johnson. But after New York Daily News Columnist Ted Lewis got through investigating one of L.B.J.'s favorite Lincoln stories last week, Presidents will have to think twice before quoting the Great Emancipator.

For months, reports Lewis, the President had been defending his Viet Nam policies by repeating what Lincoln once said to a group of critics during the Civil War. Likening himself to a French acrobat named Blondin who was famed for crossing Niagara Falls on a tight rope, Lincoln asked:...