Nation: THE RENUNCIATION

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Freed of his political shackles, Johnson can be expected to move more forcefully than he dared during the years when he was trying to maintain his "big tent" consensus. Congress, for example, can expect a gale of presidential messages, and while the men on Capitol Hill are not notably generous to Presidents whose terms are drawing to a close, they may be spurred to act by a spurt in Johnson's popularity.

For even though Johnson was tagged a lame duck as soon as he announced his intention to withdraw, he is now in fact a bird of rather singular muscularity. He retains the allegiance of countless party regulars, labor officials, businessmen and civil rights leaders. There is every likelihood that his rating in the public-opinion polls will rise considerably as a result of the renunciation. Together, these factors will give him considerable leverage, which he has not had in recent months. And Lyndon Johnson, who above all else craves a favorable verdict from history, will undoubtedly use those levers in a final, all-out effort to solve the two problems that have increasingly bedeviled his presidency—the war in Viet Nam, the racial confrontation at home.