Mar. 23, 1963 - Sen. Barry Goldwater (R-Ariz.) says he does not want to be Vice President because “I would rather be a live Senator than sort of a backwoods, background man in the Vice President’s chair.” Goldwater, in a guest appearance on the Jack Paar show, was clearly referring to Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, and then he said so explicitly. “I watched what happened to one of the strongest men in the country in the short space of two years,” said Goldwater. “Johnson was at least the second most powerful man in the United States, and a very, very effective Senator, a very effective leader of the Senate who now has found that his talents are pretty much lost and wasted.”
