“Mrs. Johnson was extremely effective,” Udall wrote the president, “in her appearances on her ‘land and people’ tour in the West….I am confident Mrs. Johnson could win the West all by herself if we gave her the opportunity.”21 “If we gave her the opportunity”—a turn of phrase that spoke volumes about the times, when a woman had to be given, rather than simply take for herself, the opportunity to shine on the national stage.
