In the early afternoon Johnson gave New York Times columnist Tom Wicker 30 minutes alone, followed by a discussion with Johnson confidant Clark Clifford. Johnson and Clifford walked to the pool, and while there, the President took a call from Dean Rusk. At 3:00, Johnson proceeded upstairs, where he remained for most of the afternoon and had calls with Walter Jenkins, McGeorge Bundy, Pierre Salinger, George Meany, Jack Valenti, Hubert Humphrey, James Reynolds, and Bill Moyers. The President returned to the Oval Office at 5:30 to meet with Robert Kerr Jr., the son of the late Oklahoma senator who had narrowly escaped his own death in December 1963 when his plane crashed at the LBJ Ranch. The evening featured another reception for members of Congress. Word leaked that the biggest hit of the dinners was not the President’s hospitality but the First Lady’s tour of the upstairs quarters—reserved for congressional wives. Johnson finished up the evening with late-night calls to Valenti and secretary Vicki McCammon.

Two days later the President was scheduled to head to Miami for a Democratic Party fund-raiser, but most locals would remember late February 1964 for another reason. Tonight, in Miami Beach shortly after 10:00, Cassius Clay (later known as Muhammad Ali) upset Sonny Liston for his first heavyweight boxing title, taking a technical knockout before the seventh round. Robert Lipsyte of the New York Times remarked in astonishment that the “loud-mouthed, bragging, insulting youngster” had backed up earlier self-generated predictions of his greatness.[note 3] New York Times, 26 February 1964.