Credibility Gaps and the Presidency

Debate Over Government Credibility

The credibility of the Johnson administration promises to become a prominent issue in the 1968 presidential election campaign.1 The two candidates so far announced for the Republican nomination have been playing up the question in a manner that suggests a conviction that it can be exploited to their party's political advantage.2

Gov. George Romney of Michigan told Oregon Republicans as long ago as Sept. 7, 1967, that the administration's “credibility gap” had become a “national embarrassment” and was not limited to the war in Viet Nam but extended also to law and order, civil rights, and fiscal matters. In Denver, Oct. 27, 1967, Romney assailed the President as “an expert in brainwashing” and said it was “time we realized (it).”

Former Vice President ...