The Press: A Cause for Mirth

However disappointing the campaign might have been, at least one editorial hand found plenty of cause for mirth.

New York Herald Tribune Staffer Harry Marsh, whose duties include rounding up and reprinting editorials from other papers, was jolted by a wry campaign observation in the Buffalo Evening News. "A good turnout can be expected at the polls in November," predicted the News. "Most voters used up their apathy watching the conventions." Could it be, Marsh wondered, that the lusterless campaign had provided a setting for editorial whimsy? By last week, with publication of the second of two editorial samplers, the Trib's Marsh had made his point: ∙The Louisville Courier-Journal noted that a local Republican office-seeker was blaming Lyndon Johnson for everything— from the mess in the Congo to De Gaulle's recognition of Red China: "Our candidate has not yet mentioned that it was during the Kennedy-Johnson years that the blue whale became commercially extinct." ∙The Wichita, Kans., Eagle affected dismay after Johnson kissed a baby: "Is it proper for the President to expose himself to the afflictions which beset the nursery crowd? Measles or whooping cough in the White House could have repercussions for the whole free world." ∙The Washington Star was amused by the Johnsonian declaration that "for the first time in history, profits are higher than ever before": "With the above offering, the Chief has taken his place alongside those forgotten orators who reminded us that The future lies ahead,' and that The boys of today will be the men of tomorrow.' " ∙The Philadelphia Bulletin detected a new earnestness of rhetoric in the campaigns last week: "Until Election Day, Voltaire's famous remark is amended to read, T will defend to the death your right to say what you have just said, but if you say it again, I'll poke you one in the kisser.' "