American Essence

Barry Goldwater: Losing the Battle, Winning the War

This episode of ‘When Character Counted’ shines a spotlight on the man who lost the 1964 presidential race but transformed American politics.
Barry Goldwater: Losing the Battle, Winning the War
President Lyndon B. Johnson with U.S. Senator Goldwater on Jan.16, 1964. LBJ Library. Public Domain
Jeff Minick
|Updated:
0:00

“AuH2O in ‘64” was a clever campaign bumper sticker for Republican Sen. Barry Goldwater (1909-1998). The Au and H20 are the chemical symbols for gold and water.

The slogan was catchy but made little difference in Goldwater’s presidential run. Lyndon B. Johnson and the Democrats buried the Republican Party’s bid for the White House in one of the most lopsided wins in American history.

Jeff Minick
Jeff Minick
Author
Jeff Minick has four children and a growing platoon of grandchildren. For 20 years, he taught history, literature, and Latin to seminars of homeschooling students in Asheville, N.C. He is the author of two novels, “Amanda Bell” and “Dust on Their Wings,” and two works of nonfiction, “Learning as I Go” and “Movies Make the Man.” Today, he lives and writes in Front Royal, Va.