Historian Robert Caro has spent almost 40 years studying and writing about President Lyndon B. Johnson. The result of that toil, in addition to two Pulitzer prizes, is about 3,388 pages so far on Johnson's life.
The fourth volume, "Passage of Power," has just published.
In the web exclusive video above, Caro talks about why Johnson could get things done in Washington and gives an example of what he calls Johnson's legislative genius in action.
On Sunday's GPS show interview, Caro said Johnson could offer today's politicians - and president - lessons on wielding power. Below is an excerpt of that interview. (Watch the entire interview on Sunday's GPS episode on iTunes)
ZAKARIA: Contrast the style of Lyndon Johnson with this enormous legislative accomplishment [the Civil Rights Act], with the style of Barack Obama, as you have seen him.
CARO: Well, I know I'm supposed to say that there's this great contrast and Obama hasn't done enough, but I feel Obama was faced with some real problems that we hardly remember anymore: the extent of the financial crisis. I happen to think he has made great strides.
You know, people find a lot wrong with health care legislation, Fareed, as do I, the bill that's passed. But I keep remembering something that Lyndon Johnson said. Once we pass it, we can always go back and amend it. And I feel it was an accomplishment to get a health care bill.
ZAKARIA: But what about the issue that people raise about just the style of it - which is, he delegated too much of the stimulus or even health care to Congress. Do you think he should have been more active? Or, the alternative view is, look, the Republicans are very strong. The important thing is to get something done. Would Johnson have taken a more activist role?
CARO: You can answer that definitely. Johnson would have been on the phone every minute with the leaders of Congress. I mean, to watch him work on peopl ... Everybody says Johnson was always talking. Not so. You listen to him on with - when he wants somebody - when he wants something from somebody - he will let the senator talk and he will let the senator talk, and all you hear from Johnson sometimes is uh-huh, uh-huh. Until he hears what he wants to hear. What's the lever he can push with this guy? What does he want? And then Johnson starts speaking.
You know, in this book Kennedy has a tax cut bill. It's snarled in the finance committee. Someone calls him at, like, 12:00 exactly and say they've just broken for lunch, and we're three votes short. We're not going to get the bill through. Johnson says who are they? And the guy names the three senators. Johnson says to his secretary, get them on the phone for me one after the other.
One is Abe Ribicoff. He says you know, Abe, I put you on whatever committee he put you on. He says I want you to help me.
Ribicoff says, well, I have already persuaded my constituents. I'll lose face. Lyndon Johnson says to him, you save my face today, I'll save your face tomorrow. And Ribicoff knows that Johnson is a bad man to cross, but a good man to have on your side.
One of the other senators wants something, has to do with a mineral bill. Johnson says he will give it to him.
In 14 minutes if I have that right, the exact time is in my book, he has turned these three senators around. So if you want to know a contrast in style, Lyndon Johnson was a contrast with everyone else. He was the greatest legislator certainly since Roosevelt and perhaps even including Roosevelt. He was a legislative genius.
It seems impossible to pass a voting rights act in 1965. He does it vote by vote. And it's almost - you know, if you care about - my books are really about political power. If you care about political power, you say there never was a man with a talent - a talent that is beyond a talent - a gift that's beyond a gift. There never was anyone who could do this like Johnson.
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One thing LBJ had in his favor then was the fact that not so many politicians in Washington were being paid off by the M.I.C. as is the case today! The tragedy here is, had it not been for the useless war in Vietnam, Lyndon Johnson would have been one of our greater Presidents!!! That war in Vietnam was bad all the way around!
Very true. LBJ was, by virtue of his life and political experiences, primed to be the greatest domestic policy President since FDR, and possibly in the entire history of the U.S. He was also ill-equipped in the same way to deal with the worst issues of war and foreign policy. Much as I admired JFK, I honestly think LBJ was badly served by some of JFK's advisers, including Bobby Kennedy, when it came to making the right decisions in Viet Nam. In the end, however, I believe LBJ's failure in Viet Nam was due to his over-reliance on the generals and forgetting how JFK learned to put their advice at arm's length.
Actually Robert NcNamara was to be blamed for the ferocity of the Vietnam War. He was the symbol of a failed policy that left more than 58,000 U.S. troops dead. Lyndon Johnson's wife was one of the most influential persons in the presidential entourage. She quietly advised her husband as he came under fire for escalating the Vietnam War. In this regard Johnson was less known for his ambitious policies of civil rights and on tackling poverty. He introduced the Voting Rights Act in1965. In a powerful speech to the Congress. He ended with a call to make the law really have an effect, concluding with the line ‘We shall overcome’.
@G.Patron,we were there militarily as advisors back in the '50s.It was Truman or Eisenhower that started sending troops to help the French fight the Vietnamese guerrilas .Pres.Johnson just stepped up pressure on the communist north by suppling more troops and helping the French with their outdated military hardware.It wasn't till '65 that Pres.Johnson signed a war declaration after the Gulf of Tonkin incident,and you're right,too much money in wars,just ask Cheney,CEO of Halliburton,and vice pres.,how much he and Pres.Bush made with no bid contracts and our soldiers blood with lies of WMDs..Just the start of Bushs destruction of this great country.
He was a thief. He used our Scoial Securety to pay for Vietman. And every president after him used funds from it. He made out SS into Welfare program and SS. Was not fair. If it had been left alone we would have SS for everyone.
He wasn't the first. How do you think Truman funded the Marshall Plan?
@cooper,Reagan was the first to use Social Security back in '83,stealing with Allen Greenspan.Reagan increased taxes on S.S. that year and instructed Greenspan to take the difference for straightening out the budget deficet that year making him look fiscally responsible.So Reagan was a thief as well as a hypocrital republican president,I hope I didn't burst your bubble,he being your hero and all.Ya don't have to trash those Reagan super hero toys, they are collectibles aren't they!!!
The Greatest President! LOL! Ya mean the Freemason who had Kennedy Assassinated so Kennedy wouldn't put the Federal Reserve out of business. I take it your a brother Mason if you believe that drivel. He should have been locked up rather than given the office of President.
JFK started the war in VietNam by sending "advisers". In addition to creating and building up the Military Industrial Complex LBJ sacrificed 58K and maimed God Knows how many others of my generation for no reason.
@Celtic,wrong,Truman or Eisenhower were there back in the early '50s with advisors and Kennedy just sent more.Johnson signs the resolution of war after the Gulf of Tonkin conflict in 1964 and send in soldiers to fight against the communist North Vietnamese rebels.
hope caro lives long enough to honestly explain the stupidity of the vietnam war.
Joe, the reasons for the VietNam 'police action' are as cloaked in secrecy as a C.I.A. operation. Find the Gemstone files (by American writer Bruce Porter ) on the net and read them, there's a lot of missing puzzle pieces in that writing.
@stratlers4jazz,we went to S. Vietnam to help the French who were being raided by North Vietnamese rebels in their rubber plantations,mostly for companies like Michelin tire and other plantations and companies using vietnamese help,holding the French and Vietnamese hostage.The advisors were a ploy to check out the validity of their complaints,till'64.Then we were in full war mode after the Gulf of Tonkin incident with the USS MADDOX being attacked by N.Vietnamese gun boats.
The GOP solution: Start a war with Iran (totally unfunded of course). Then send all the poor people to fight/die in the war while giving the rich people "no bid contracts". Thus killing two GOP birds with one stone!!! Then use Iran's oil to pay for the war. And when the war is over, Iran will sell us cheap oil!! Just like in Iraq!!!!!!!..................oh wait....never mind.
Start a war with Iran???? Who's president???? Oh yeah Obama! What delusional world do you live in?
The truth hurts don't it.
So by your logic isn't that what the democrats did during Vietnam? Started a war for profit.
But in the Vietnam war, were we not at least trying to stop an actual invasion?
Were as with the Iraq war we were the invaders?
Ahhh, yes profits for war are not based on whether one is Democrat or Republican. This is why our systems has lobbyist to smoothly pave the way whoever is in office in Congress and the Executive Branch.
Last night I dreamt that sterilization was mandatory for all teabaggers. It was a better world indeed.
Indeed it would be.
Or we can sterilize all the Democrats living off wellfare and save the governemtn a whole lot of money, at least tea baggers pay their own way they are not demanding other people's money.
If you want to get quickly “up to speed” on the JFK assassination, here is what to read:
1) LBJ: Mastermind of JFK’s Assassination by Phillip Nelson
2) JFK and the Unspeakable:Why He Died and Why it Matters by James Douglass
3) Brothers: the Hidden History of the Kennedy Years by David Talbot
4) The Dark Side of Camelot by Seymour Hersh
5) Family of Secrets: The Bush Dynasty by Russ Baker
6) Power Beyond Reason: The Mental Collapse of Lyndon Johnson by Jablow Hershman
7) Google the essay “LBJ-CIA Assassination of JFK” by Robert Morrow
8) Google “National Security State and the Assassination of JFK by Andrew Gavin Marshall.”
9) Google “Chip Tatum Pegasus.” Intimidation of Ross Perot 1992
10) Google “Vincent Salandria False Mystery Speech.” Read everything Vincent Salandria ever wrote.
11) Google "Unanswered Questions as Obama Annoints HW Bush" by Russ Baker
12) Google "Did the Bushes Help to Kill JFK" by Wim Dankbaar
13) Google "The Holy Grail of the JFK story" by Jefferson Morley
14) Google "The CIA and the Media" by Carl Bernstein
15) Google "CIA Instruction to Media Assets 4/1/67"
16) Google "Limit CIA Role to Intelligence" Harry Truman on 12/22/63
The two books that are must reads about the assassination of JFK are:
1) Case Closed by Gerald Posner
2) Reclaiming History: The Assassination of JFK by Vincent Bugliosi
All the other "conspiracy" books are nothing more than fiction.
2 good books, but we're fighting a loosing battle – for some reason the human psyche would rather believe that this Ball of Chaos we call planet Earth is somehow being run by a small group of ultra-wealthy white men. The possibility that just some guy could load a rifle with bullets, aim it at the Leader of the Free World and kill him – well that would mean that nobody was really in charge. And better to have some Evil Men in charge, because the alternative would be *really* scarry!
Lyndon Johnson was a critical player in the JFK assassination. Read the book "LBJ: the Mastermind of the JFK Assassination" by Phillip Nelson: http://www.amazon.com/LBJ-The-Mastermind-JFK-Assassination/dp/1616083778/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1336405863&sr=8-1
I just wrote a book on how you are an idiot. By your logic if a book has been writen about something it most be true, idiot.
I have often wondered what would have happened to Gingrich's Contract On America if Lyndon had been president then. The political world might be a lot different now.
Having lived through the cold war...LBJ would have said never trust India as they sided with the communists. Remember that the cold war resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of american soldiers.
dc is dead. it is irrelevant. there is nothing left to teach those losers.
and even if there were, there peeps there are too stupid, old, out of touch, and out of date to even understand. we must all pray for them, though.
If you didn't do things the way LBJ wanted you were taken out. It should be King LBJ
Being from Texas, I remember as a kid hearing how Johnson was a crook and was elected with the graveyard vote. He was one of the ones that made the word "politician" a dirty word. Unfortunately, he was just like the other Great Socialist, Roosevelt, and the damage they have done to the country may never be repaired.
@civitas,that Roosevelt you were referring to helped clean up that republican Hoovers mess,remember the Great Depression,it took well over 12 years.He's the one of many republican presidents,that created hugh economic and political catastrophes that burdened this country for years to come...Just "your "typical republican take on things,all ass backwards...And your Bush,we are still feeling the effects of his political screwups and will for years to come...
Yeah, he cleaned it up alright into a longer depression than necessary by bad policy making. Even FDR's treasury sec Henry Morganthau admitted we were in the depression 10 yrs longer because of the policies.
I just love it when you guys rewrite history.
The recssion caused by the amrket crash was just the first of the three we refer to as the great depression.
It was actually ending and unemployment rapidly fally when FDR took office.
However a compbination of his domemstic agenda and the republicans isolationist agenda led to the shutting down the ports on all three coats.
With in 1 year of that, FDR took the unemployment rate from under 10% to over 20%.
Nice job FDR.
@LindaB,it was the policies of Hoover as he tryed many different approaches to dyin this economic down turn. Roosevelt wanted a bill to energize or jump start the economy and was eventually turned down by the republican lead SCOTUS .After being reelected Roosevelt overrode the republican majority in the Supreme Court by appointing two more liberal leaning judges,thus having a total of nine,the number of todays seated appointees.As a result,if you read political history,two republican or conservative leaning judges balked at his move and resigned,leaving Roosevelt a total of 4 Supreme Court appointees during his term in office.That's why republicans are scared of another Obama term, himself a political history buff and knows history could repeat itself giving him 1-2 maybe more seats to fill in this Supreme Court ,giving him a liberal leaning majority,the first in years.Plus its you republicans that are always putting a twist on things to protect your republican presidents past failures,just like Reagan,Bush Sr.,BushJr,and going back to your infamous failure Hoover and HIS GREAT DEPRESSION,his and his alone.I know you republican hypocrites with your tea bagging trash are always in denile and will always argue facts with your typical ignorent responses,many with nothing factual for backup,but just your gig,and it must be hard carrying that political stigma around since birth,ya know being republicans,being it a heavy cross to bare.Take care and see what happens in November, you pretty much do..
After laughing at most of the comments to this article, I actually found someone who makes sense.
I think Obama has learned all he needs to from LBJ...the rascist way to keep people in Welfare poverty to guaranty their votes...
Good article, but a few points:
First, LBJ was the first Halliburton president (Brown and Root) which being from Texas is no surprise. Second, because he was able to get things done, specifically getting the Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed, he was doomed as a politician thereafter; Obama is looking forward to a second term which is why he has been a politically moderate center to center-right president like Clinton and Carter. And lastly, LBJ never had to deal with the likes of the current batch of right-winger politicos from the Party of NO or the CAN'T DO Party.
@Ron,thanks so much for the backup info.It's nice to see people that have their facts together,not like these republican nitwits with their rightwing routines,all political nonsense..
Good job making yourself irrelevant. When will you people learn name calling makes you sound illiterate and uneducated.
Yeah Pete... you irrelevant, illiterate, uneducated person you!!!! Kettle...meet Linda B. Hahahahahahahahaha
LBJ did a great job of taking credit for the civil rights acts first propossed by eisenhower ( a progressive repubican), that took almost 15 years to get passed over democratic oppostion. (and first enforced by anouther republican, Nixon)
If LBJ supported these acts, why did he refuse to let them pass in the form they finally did back in the 50's, instead of fiorcing the long politcal fight.
@hahaha,hey,is she sayin I'm stupid or somethin geez!!!Boy,AM I name calling,sticks an stones will break my bones but republicans will never hurt me,hahaha!!!LMAO!!!
Good points Ron. Far more hardened extremists involved today who think avoiding negotiation using an under-siege mentality is a good survival mechanism.
Remember people,keep your friends close and your enemies closer,till we meet again ,thanks!!
NOW that's has to be the funniest thing I have heard all day!!!
Without the republicans pushing civil rights through it would have never passed through democrats.
HILARIOUS rewriting history!
Linda, I'm sure you're well aware of the term "Dixiecrat", southern Democrats that blocked Civil Rights due to their racism. Do you need to be educated on the "Southern Strategy" and the slow peeling away of Southern racists into the GOP column? Rockefeller Republicans are likewise an endangered species, having been largely replaced by Dems. You're either ignoring history or unaware of it. Work on that before harping on others to stop rewriting it.
UH oh the dixiecrat excuse 101
I suggest you actually read some american history. The congressional record (everything said in congress) is a good place to start.
Also read some of eisenhowers letters he wrote before he was president and afterwards. When he got back to the US after the war he couldn't stand how the Black Veternas were being treated.
That was his reason for proposing his Voting Rights and Civil rights acts that were first passed in the 50's, over LBj's opposition as senate leader.
The final acts that passed in the 60's were passed with almost unnanimous (sp) votes of the republicans, and they were able to draw enough moderate northern and western democrats an board to give enough votes that LBJ would not be able to veto it.
(That is all in the congressional record as well.)
Not quite apples to apples. In the 60's, Congress was much less polarized. Repubs and Demos were reaching across the aisle to do what is right for the country.
Great interview like always by Mr. Fareed Zakaria big fan maybe one of the top 5 smart show in TV right now with 60 Minutes maybe only on number one. Not on my top 10 great Leaders of all time President LBJ, but a person that did much for the United States and for the people that really needed help. All Leaders are complex people but I have to agree that LBJ was a rare leader and I have to agree maybe the best in legislative accomplishment.
Carlos
Author
Leadership: Past,Present & Future
"Well, I know I'm supposed to say ... Obama hasn't done enough..."
Obama has done far, far, too much–toward leading the country over the cliff of economic collapse, toward intruding government into the private affairs of individuals, toward furthering the dystopian welfare-state idiocy, and on and on.
LBJ's "Great Society" foolishness was a big step toward ruining this country, and Obama has done nothing but make it worse.
@HMiller,do you remember who took all your freedoms away,it was bush and his fascist views that has us figuritively speaking on a leash.His cameras,frisking everywhere,,thanks to HOMELAND SECURITY,your ignorence of his debacles just floor me.Pres.Obama is still fixing Bushs screwups and you republicans know it,so try reading before inserting your shoe in your mouth,this way I don't have to bash another wingnut with facts,not twists,the ones you like to sell...
Just call LBJ murderer in chief, not commander in chief! Not only was he responsible for the Kennedy assassination but he was also responsible for the current state of social security, due to his raiding our retirement benefits and placing them in the general fund to balance the budget. Johnson was no great President, though many a freemason would love you to believe that. As usual just being a member of freemasonry they make sure their praises are sung loudly whether they are deserving of praise or not. Johnson was never my president for nor person who is an accomplice to murder should ever hold the office of Commander in Chief.
LBJ co-conspired to have Kennedy killed, got 58,000 US men killed in Vietnam, and opened the floodgates to mass immigration.
He tarnished the United States forever.
Just call LBJ murderer in chief, not commander in chief! Not only was he responsible for the Kennedy assassination but he was also responsible for the current state of social security, due to his raiding our retirement benefits and placing them in the general fund to balance the budget. Johnson was no great President, though many a freemason would love you to believe that. As usual just being a member of freemasonry they make sure their praises are sung loudly whether they are deserving of praise or not. Johnson was never my president for no person who is an accomplice to murder should ever hold the office of Commander in Chief.
LBJ could teach Obama how to be a bipartisan President. LBJ lobbied for and signed Republican Legislation unlike no compromise Obama.
LBJ could also have taught how after being a school eacher it was still possible to become a multi millionaire while serving as an elected government official in Washington.
LBJ couldn't teach any of these knuckle-heads in DC a thing because he was a knuckle-head himself!
what could LBJ teach Washington today? Sadly, absolutely nothing. Nobody in DC wants to listen to anything but dollar signs.
He is going to teach them how to invent states. He invented new counties to get elected.
The "Great Society" fell on it's face.
I'm going to seem like an idiot, but when it said LBJ, I thought he meant LeBron James. And that was why I clicked on the link LOL
Reagan was very similar, in dealing to get the best deal he could. In days of yore, legislators relied on their party for reelection funds, so there was great pressure to toe the line and work together. These days, legislators can get much more support from fringe groups, by playing up their partisan credentials, then they're loathe to compromise, and endanger their funding. Ironically, the same groups that give voice to our interests also make the legislative process almost unworkable.
Rick Springfield: Apparently all those years of making bad music has turned your brain to mush. You either have a more active imagination than Oliver Stone or you are doing mushrooms ... I want what you are shooting up your arm!
From my perspective, I have very little good to say about Mr. Johnson. He used ever dirty trick to get what he wanted. He held few real convictions and rode the political winds of the day to his advantage. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was indeed noble in concept but so flawed a piece of legislation that its unintended consequences actually contributed to greater social and economic inequities for minorities rather than cured them. It was the ultimate "feel-good" law and LBJ pushed it through Congress with the expressed purpose of derailing Goldwater's campaign.
For what it is worth, Barry Goldwater would not have committed 500,000 US troops to fight a 'no-win" war. He knew that Vietnam was unwinnable and that proxy wars were never part of the conservative strategy to fighting the cold war. (Conservatives voted for Goldwater because they were against the Vietnam war) Maybe Goldwater wasn't the smartest "politician" we ever had, and he certainly was at times naive about the political maneuverings of his day, but the man had conviction - and actually believed in what he promoted. And what he promoted was, in his heart, in the best interest for all. LBJ promoted what was in the best interest for LBJ.
Sadly we are still living with the missteps Lyndon Johnson laid at the doorstep of our nation. And in today's political landscape we have a dysfunctional right wing and an unfocused middle. We haven't yet heard from the left in quite some time and you can put some of the blame on LBJ for this.
I am really beginning to be disgusted by the revisionist historians take on LBJ
First, on Civil Rights and the Voting rights act.
A little History. Both were first proposed by Eisenhower as president. He saw how the Black Veterans of the war were being treated and couldn't stand that. LBJ spent his time as senate leader opposing both, allowing only watered down version of each to pass in 54 and 55. (it might have been 53 and 54)
As president, he threatened to veto both. I suggest Caro actually read the congressional record from 1952 to 1968 concerning Johnson. I Have. He was no friend of either act and refused to enforce either.
And finally, if caro had taken the time to actually read the records of what was going on during the fight by the republicans for the passage of the latest incarnation of their voting rights and civil rights act, he would have found that this action was led by the republcians, trying to get enough moderate democrate on board to pass the legislation over LBJ's veto threat.
They finally did it, the acts were passed, and a republcian was the first to enforce them.That took Nixon to do.
On the Kennedy/Johnson victory, he was part of the "stolen'election (dead and duplicate voters on Texas and Illinois' that Nixon refused to challange, though that was reccomended by many.)
As a senate leader, then VP and then president, he was not a leader. He was a Bully.
Just read the records. Read his letters. Read news accounts of the time. I have done that.
But then Caro would have to do actual historical research. And we can't have that can we.
There were two Eisenhower Civil Rights bills that passed. One in 1957 and another one in 1960. Goldwater voted for both bills.
Those were actually the first rewrites of the earlier bills that passed that were so watered down by the dems to get them passed they were almost laughable, if not for their serious nature.
to j. von hettlingen
The voting rights and civil rights acts were not first proposed by LBJ.
The versions that finally passed over LBJ's objections were just expansions of the acts first proposed by eisenhower and in limited fashion passed by congress. The 60's acts
that passed were proposed by the republcans.
Thats all in the congressional record if you'd like to look them up.LBJ spent his life opposing both.
Well, he could teach them real good.
First of all. Ladybird met Marina Oswald at a Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs mixer for the Russian Attache to the US Embassy in Dallas. Ladybird was introduced to Marina by Ruth Paine, a cultural affairs volunteer. Ruth then rented her back apartment to Marina and Lee for them to give a comfortable place for the baby. Ruth also knew Lee struggled to get a job in Dallas and was not making it. She used her connections at the Dallas School Board to get him a janitorial position at the Dallas School Book Depository. Ruth also signed for the Italian rifle he had ordered from a magazine. Marina and Lee had opportunities to talk with Ladybird on several occasions and heard of her disdain for Kennedy. Ladybird felt like Kennedy was holding up the country. Also Ruth Paine's husband was an engineer for Bell Helicopter. He was not happy that Kennedy would not allow the US to fully enter the hostilities in SE Asia as it would mean a boon for Bell. So Lee was able to come up with the idea that if Kennedy was out of the way, Johnson would become president and the state of Texas would reel in all kinds of benefits. So Lee learned of the route that the motorcade was taking that day and took a rather easy shot to eliminate Kennedy and thus propel Johnson into the office. Part 2 of his plan also went to full fruition because Johnson signed the orders placing the US into full involvement into Vietnam. Bell wound up getting an order from the Pentagon for 16,000 units. Bell cashed in huge on those orders and to this day is still a large, financially viable company located right between Fort Worth and Dallas. All thanks to Lee listening to the Paines and Mrs. Ladybird.
Dear Rick Springfield (if that is your real name), two words: coo & coo!
Rick,
Lee Harvey Oswald was, in his own words, a "patsy". There were incontrovertibly more than thre shots fired at the President and the fatal one that blew his brains backward came from the grassy knoll. All of your conjecturing neglects the basic forensics of the assassination.
Anyone who thinks that the benefit of society is to raise taxes for social welfare programs sends an invitation for taxpayer abuse, and that's just what we have today. Free rent, utility payments, cell phones, daycare, food stamps, bus and taxicab vouchers... the list goes on. The payments go on and on... for decades to the same people and families. There's nothing LBJ could teach the government.
He was a piece of crap!
Fianl note for the night.
I love the Obamma people that hate Bush
And the Bush people that hate Obamma.
There policies are the same. There the same man folks.
Both are Ivy league Oligarchist, who belive in big is better.
Both came from upper class families. (Obamma was raised by his grandparents in Hawaii, she a bank VP, he a top sales person, 1%'s I am sure.)
Both have the total support of Wall Street and Big Business. Both supported Tarp (Which Romney opposed)
Both pursue the same social and economic policies. (keynes does't work folks)
Obamma has continued without change the Cheney/Bush foreign policy of contianment regarding the ONE war going on against Al Quida with all of its fronts.
What's the difference folks.
When Reagon was president the debt was under control and main street controlled 85+% of the capital.
Under Clinton the debt was under control and Main Street still controlled 80% of the capital.
Today, after 12 years of Bush/Obamma the debt is out of control, the economey in stuck in a recession, and 90% of the nations capital is held by a select few on wall street.
Casey: it would really help if you knew how to spell ... It's "Obama", not Obamma , you moron. Domestically LBJ was one of our greatest presidents and he was by far the greatest legislator. I was there. I don't have to read the congressional record. Why should we believe you have when you can't even spell. You are the one who is trying to re-write history ... and you are doing it badly.
This might be someone who is draining my tax dollars with the "everyone gets an education, housing, cell phone..." program. If you're going to spend my money and refer to the lousy leader who thinks it's essential, at least learn how to spell O B A M A.
His mother found a way to collect welfare so I'm sure that's why he has such a soft spot for the bleeding of the budget. LBJ wanted this "Great Society" too. (Great if you're not paying for it!)
Lets see what LBJ could teach Washington..How about how to assassinate a sitting president,or how to cover up the attack of the USS Liberty by Israel..or how to escalate a war over lies about the gulf of Tonkin attack..He was a liar and a murderer..
All I need to know is LBJ could have gotten us out of vietnam but he didn't.
Fareed, I heard you deride the size and scope of homeland security Sunday. How would YOU handle the continuing threat from Yemeni bomb builders and the threat of body bombs?
LBJ and Nixon dipped into SS. In covert operations the US was in Southeast Asia at the behest of Eisenhower and Nixon. Ladybird had the money. She owned the TV and radio stations that could disseminate information. LBJ was a misogynistic blowhard. He came from the time of hard drinking, hard partying and holding as much dirt as possible on people so he could use it when Ladybird told him to. He miscalculated portions of Viet Nam and his old methods didn't work any longer. The look on Ladybirds' face when LBJ took the oath of office in the plane tells you all you need to know.
Lyndon Johnson was a great American and a great Texan. He did his best, with what he had to work with, no matter the outcome no one has ever loved this country more than Lyndon.
With all great men you have to accept the Good with the Bad and some have more foibles than others. We are however, electing our leaders, not saints.
Too easy. LBJ could teach Obama and the rest of the Democrats that the American people recognize a scammer when they see one, and it's far better to not run for re-election than to run and then go on to be impeached...as Nixon did. Johnson wisely saw the writing on the wall, that he was making things worse, not better, and he bailed, rightfully so. A man that knows his own limitations will always have my respect. Those that believe they are some sort of a messiah, and try to convince others of that, have my eternal pity and condemnation. Obama need to check his ego and then check out of the White House guest suite.
Johnson – from his long tenure in Congress – knew how to wield power in Congress – who could be blackmailed about pork, who could be bribed with pork – the power to say Yea or Nea and make it stick. The power of the smoke filled back rooms. Plus Congress wasn't as 'bought' then as it has become today.
The US today has the best form of government money can buy; it is being bought and sold daily!
LBJ could teach us ho to plot against JFK and then take his job. He could also tell us how he destroyed the black family with his welfare programs and how generations of able bodied folks refused to work as long as they got to suckle at the gov'ment teat
LBJ was very good at spending other peoples' money.
All of you represent the polarization of this country and why we are really in the mess we are in. You all are so smart and have all of the answers! Meanwhile, you don't really care about your country but about your ideology!! I have watched the birth of idiots who do nothing more than argue who is right and who is wrong while our country is on the way to becoming a 3rd world country! My heart goes out to those who have sacrificed their lives for this country when you are the legacy. Shame on all of you!!