Imagine that you are President Lydon Johnson. Would you run for re-election in 1968? Write a short speech explaining the reasons for your decision.

My fellow Americans,

I will run for re-election. I am energetic and forceful. I have spent thirty years in Congress, so I know something about working with politicians, and I knew how to manage them. I easily got Kennedy’s tax cut passed and, by putting pressure on northern Republicans, succeeded in gaining passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, banning all public segregation and protecting voting rights.

I chose to make America’s persistent poverty my own special issue. I  had Congress pass a variety of programs in my “war on poverty” in 1964. The programs generally encouraged self-help and reduced poverty by a significant degree. When the Republicans ran Barry Goldwater, an outspoken conservative, to oppose me in 1964, the result was a Democratic landslide.

I acted quickly to get Congress to enact Medicare and Medicaid and to pump over $1 billion into education. After one of King’s demonstrations in Selma, Alabama, was attacked brutally by the police, I sent help to the blacks and asked Congress for the Voting Rights Act of 1965. This act led to a dramatic increase in black voters.

In nine months, I had accomplished more than any president since Roosevelt and had moved the nation beyond the New Deal. I also promise to end the War in Vietnam. I, and the country, need your vote.

Thank you and God Bless America!