Oct. 15, 1963 - Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson did not talk or look tonight like a man who is at all concerned over the rumor that President Kennedy might drop him as a running mate next year. Before a thoroughly political audience in New York City — a Hotel Americana dinner of the Liberal Party — Mr. Johnson vigorously proclaimed that he and President Kennedy will meet head on in the 1964 campaign the challenge of conservatives who “want to retreat from the twentieth century.” In an attack that appeared to be directed mainly at Senator Barry Goldwater (R-Ariz.), the current front-runner for the Republican Presidential nod, Mr. Johnson said the Kennedy Administration “cannot accept the proposition that it is wrong or dangerous to use the full Constitutional powers of the Federal government to meet the needs of the American people.” He also retorted sharply to criticisms by Goldwater and other Republicans of the limited nuclear test ban treaty and the wheat sale to Russia. During the noon hour, Vice President Johnson and David Dubinsky, president of the International Ladies Garment Workers and a force in the Liberal Party, toured the garment center, visiting several shops and shaking hands on the street.
