Michael Posner

Mike was fascinated by politicians and what made them tick. Of the hundreds he covered, possibly the most complex was Lyndon Johnson. Mike once told me of an afternoon when LBJ, apparently seized by a bout of cabin fever in the White House, rounded him up along with a few others from the press room. “Come on boys, we’re going for a ride,” he announced - or words to that effect. They piled into a chauffeur-driven limo and set out on a magical mystery tour of Washington lasting perhaps an hour at most. Whatever was on Johnson’s mind - the Vietnam quagmire? - he kept it to himself, so there were no bulletins to file at the end of the cruise to nowhere. Brian Bain, who worked with Mike longer than I did, thinks this happened “while Johnson was agonizing” before his bombshell announcement in March 1968 that he wouldn’t seek re-election.  ■