Mandate, Loud & Clear

The dimensions of Lyndon Johnson's victory were staggering. He won every one of the East's 142 electoral votes, becoming the first Democratic President ever to carry Vermont, the first since 1912 to win Maine. He made a clean sweep of the Midwest, the Mountain and Border States, the West Coast, appeared to have lost only Arizona in the Southwest. Only in the South did Barry Goldwater score a breakthrough, capturing Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina. Remarkably, the pattern of Democrat Johnson's victory was strikingly similar to Republican Dwight Eisen- hower's in 1956--only with the party loyalties reversed.

The Clingers. After a numbingly dull campaign, election night promised to be almost as dreary. As soon as the first returns trickled in from Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio at around 7 p.m. (E.S.T.), it became clear that Lyndon was headed for a big victory. The only question was: How big? By 9 p.m., when Vermont had plopped into the Democratic column and television's psephologists flatly declared Johnson the winner, the answer became obvious: very, very big. In fact, TV's impatient forecasters were projecting final results with almost impudent haste: CBS suavely announced Bobby Kennedy's victory over Ken Keating in New York with no votes showing at all.

Johnson's electoral margin of 486 to 52 votes (assuming he loses Arizona's five) fell short of Franklin Roosevelt's record 523-to-8 victory over Alf Landon in 1936, but it was the second best in history. Moreover, when the final returns are tabulated, Johnson seems certain to be credited with the greatest popular-vote margin in U.S. history --some 61% of the record 70 mil- lion votes cast, and a plurality of some 15 million votes. In 1936, F.D.R. won 60.8% of the vote and had an 11,078,204-vote plurality.

By themselves, the statistics were impressive enough. But even more impressive was what they meant to coattailclinging Democratic candidates for Congress, governorships and state legislatures. Only ticket splitting of incredible proportions saved moderate Repub licans such as Governor George Romney of Michigan and Governor-elect Daniel Evans of Washington from defeat; despite considerable splitting, New York's Ken Keating, Illinois' Chuck Percy, Oklahoma's Bud Wilkinson went down. In the Senate, Democrats were assured of retaining their lopsided ma- jority of 66 to 34. or even of increasing it. Thanks to Lyndon's sturdy coattails. Democratic gubernatorial candidates won in Indiana and West Virginia.

Cashing the Checks. "I want the mandate of this election to be written strong and clear," said the President, "so that none will mistake the meaning." As far as figures are concerned, the mandate could hardly have been written more clearly. But since the figures meant anti-Goldwater as much as pro-Johnson, carrying out the mandate will not follow automatically.

During the campaign the President handed out blank checks to dozens of disparate groups, and cashing them will require a miracle of political statesmanship. Johnson promised a Government "both thrifty and progressive"; it will have to be both if he is to balance his budget and still put across wide-ranging medicare, education and anti- poverty programs. Big steel is pressing for higher prices; Lyndon's resistance could turn some businessmen against him. Ford's 130,000 United Auto Workers Union members threatened to strike by week's end; Johnson's newly won prestige will be damaged if they do and the strike is long. Deferred Decisions. With the campaign over, Johnson must also make some long-deferred decisions. "More of the same" may not keep Viet Nam afloat much longer. Laos and the Congo remain dangerously explosive. Domestically, the President must cope with impatient Negro leaders, who agreed to call off civil rights demonstrations during the campaign, but will be on the march again if their demands are not met. Abroad, the President faces a panoply of problems. De Gaulle's hints at a further French de-emphasis of NATO and the uncertainty over Britain's defense posture point up the need for major repairs on the Atlantic Alliance. Johnson's task is complicated by the shaky underpinnings of so many gov ernments. In Britain, Prime Minister Harold Wilson has a fragile five-vote majority in Parliament, which began its new session as the U.S. was voting. Wilson is expected in Washington next month, but one of his first acts was to propose the nationalization of steel, and if he keeps pushing such controversial legislation, he may not be around for too long. In Moscow, a new B. & K. diarchy is in power, but unless Brezhnev and Kosygin manage to work in tandem more effectively than Bulganin and Khrushchev did, an internal power struggle may grip Russia and becloud efforts for an East-West detente. Peking's atomic blast may make it more difficult than ever for the U.S. to keep nations along the periphery of Red China from falling under its influence. In Latin America, Johnson must take up the unfinished business of Fidel Castro, not to mention such trouble spots as Bolivia.

Finding the Way. Despite the problems, Lyndon Johnson is now able to act with the confidence that he is President in his own right. He has overwhelming encouragement to move and an overwhelmingiy Democratic Congress to help him move. But in moving, he must be prepared to make enemies, unless he can somehow keep business and labor, moderates and liberals, dozens of often conflicting interests happily balanced. "I do not accept Government as just the 'art of the practicable,' " the President told a crowd in Austin on the eve of his election. "It is the business of deciding what is right and then finding the way to do it." There is little doubt that if Lyndon Johnson wants desperately to do "what is right," and if he finds the way most of the time, he will grandly merit the astonishing tribute paid him this week by his fellow citizens.

* E'ght years ago, Ike lost only Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, the Carolinas and the Border State of Missouri to Adlai Stevenson.

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