In Fox News interview, Hillary casts herself as President Johnson to Obama's MLK

[maximusveritas]

I don't think this comparison is going to work well for her.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0108/Clinton_and_Obama_Johnson_and_King.html

Clinton was asked about Obama's rejoinder that there's something vaguely un-American about dismissing hopes as false, and that it doesn't jibe with the careers of figures like like John F. Kennedy and King.

"Dr. King's dream began to be realized when President Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act," Clinton said. "It took a president to get it done."

Clinton didn't explicitly compare herself to Johnson, or Obama to King. But it seems an odd example for the argument between rhetoric and action, as there's little doubt which figure's place in history and the American imagination is more secure.

Update:
Additional link from Fox News confirming Clinton's words:
http://embeds.blogs.foxnews.com/2008/01/07/clinton-talks-tears-with-fox-news/

[HeraldSquare212]

1. A President who knew he was giving up the South for Dems for a generation

I'm a little skeptical Clinton would do that or anything like that.

[elixir]

7. I agree. Once again, consider the source - Politico. I find the reference extremely remote.

[maximusveritas]

9. Yes, we'll have to wait for the Fox News interview to air for confirmation

but it doesn't look good for her.

[sandnsea]

19. She let a war start to look tough n/t

[Drunken Irishman]

2. Kennedy getting shot passed the Civil Rights Act.

So I guess she can compare herself to Lee Harvey Oswald. Ok, not really, but yeah...:D

[terisan]

21. If Jonson didn't make it happen, the Southern Democrats would have blocked it.

[rodeodance]

3. I do not appreciate deceptive subject lines.

[maximusveritas]

8. The implication is very clear

I could have said "Hillary Slams MLK" like Hillary supporters did when Obama made his comments about Gore, but I restrained myself.

[Thrill]

4. Get her a muzzle

[terisan]

22. Is that a personal fantasy of yours?

[MannyGoldstein]

5. The Great Clinton Meltdown Is Quite A Thing To See

She and the husband started getting a little batty a month or so ago. Now, before our eyes, they've gone off the deep end.

Wouldn't count them out, though.

[K Gardner]

6. She allowed an interview by Fox News?? Is she going on O'Reilly soon?

[cindyw]

10. Yeah MLK was too busy marching for he right to sit in the front of a bus

and sit a any lunch counter. Signing the Civil Rights Act as president wasn't really possible for a black man then. Not the best argument.

[terisan]

15. Johnson put himself on the line, and twisted every arm he had to to get that civil rights

legislation passed, and he did it knowing that he was going to split the his own Democratic party and put it out of power. It took a experienced and committed politico like Johnson to do it. Kennedy tried but couldn't get much traction- he was charismatic, he won the primary and presidency but he could not move the Congress on Civil Rights to any great extent.

I think MLK and many other civil rights people know what is owed to Johnson.

[cindyw]

44. JOhnson did a good and just thing, but come on MLK could not have done

it without him because blacks at that time could not get into positions of power like the presidency. It was a bad thing for Hil to say. She said it like MLK had unrealized dreams because he was not strong enough or experienced enough.

[GainesT1958]

It may have...

But it took someone like Dr. King to put the issue on the front burner so someone like LBJ would pay attention to it!

LBJ took a great risk politically by getting that legislation through Congress in 1964. But he wasn't jailed, beaten, harrassed, bombed, tailed, and ultimately, assasinated for his stand. The man who picked him to be VP was murdered, but not for his civil rights views.

A "wheeler and dealer" can get a lot of things done, and LBJ did. But given a choice between a wheeler-dealer and a leader, there's no doubt in my mind whom I'd rather have occupying the Oval Office. Sorry, Hillary; that's not a contrast that puts you in a favorable light.

B-)

[terisan]

11. I know exactly what she is talking about. The work of revolution takes something way beyond speeches

People relate to the speeches and a lot of people think that's all it takes. Media often gives a false impression of what it takes to make change.

[maximusveritas]

16. Yes, but this was not the example to use

What she's asking people to do is to choose Johnson over MLK. That's not going to happen. It's a very poor argument from a political perspective.

[Bread and Circus]

17. Clinton is wrong on this on so many levels the mind boggles...

frantic and grasping.

There's just absolutely no reason to diss MLK. It's one of the fucking stupidest things she could say right now.

[terisan]

20. I think it is a good argument if she is saying she is not the charismatic leader like

MLK but she is the politician leader like Johnson. I think she is saying Obama can be a great inspirational leader but that she will be the better executive.

Personally I do not want a charismatic leader in the role of president. Such a person can stir the public but won't stir the super rich, the multinationals and the Congress.

JFK found this out when he got stymied by big business. He was quoted later as saying something to the effect that "My father told me all business men were SOBs"

[alcibiades_mystery]

26. So MLK was just a fancy speechifier?

:rofl:

I know, I know...don't put words in your mouth...:rofl:

[terisan]

29. Bush!

[Nailzberg]

12. She ain't gonna sit around Air Force One in her boxers, is she?

[terisan]

23. Does the image excite you?

[Nailzberg]

25. In my mental image she was wearing boxers, tshirt, and a ten gallon hat

LBJ style. It wasn't sexual at all.

[terisan]

28. Did I say anything about sex?

[Nailzberg]

34. Did I implicate you in doing so?

[terisan]

38. Cute !

[Renew Deal]

13. I expect Hillary to exacerbate the war in Iraq, so there might be something to this.

:shrug:

[terisan]

24. Do you have some facts or is this in the realm of gut feeling?

[Renew Deal]

30. Her track record.

IWR, K/L, no apology for her vote. Troops in Iraq until 2013.

[terisan]

31. Obama just voted to continue the war and wouldn't sign letter to Bush on Iran

Edwards is the only one of the three I see ending the occupation.

[Renew Deal]

33. He's got the 2nd worst track record

He was a cheerleader for the Iraq War. Now he claims he opposes it.

[terisan]

37. I like a man who can admit a mistake and change his mind. I like Edwards.

He know who we have to fight ----it's the multinationals.

[Renew Deal]

40. Why not pick someone who got it right the first time?

[terisan]

41. Obama-he was against the war before he got to the Senate-last year he voted to fund it.

I don't fault him for changing his mind but I think he could have been a strong voice to end it but didn't try.

Kucinich I have other issues with.

[Renew Deal]

42. Who said he changed his mind?

And who says he hasn't been a strong voice? That's the problem with Edwards. He's all voice. He's telling people what they want to hear, even though it defies history, people are falling for it.

[terisan]

43. Obama voted to fund war in 2007. But tell me why I am falling for Edwards.

He sound very honest and straightforward to me. i agree with him re corporations being the major problem.

[george_maniakes]

14. I would turn it around and say it took MLK and those like him to push america...

into change.

[terisan]

18. It takes people standing up for their rights to initiate change. Americans haven't been standing up

for their rights.

Last year Congress voted to fund the Iraq Occupation and voted to extend the Patriot Act. I think most people on DU don't even know how their candidate, or reps voted or what was in the Patriot Act.

It is hard to stand up for your rights if you choose to be ignorant.

[alcibiades_mystery]

27. Of course it did...that's why the rationalizers upthread sound like imbeciles

[book_worm]

32. And in '64 when King and Johnson were working for Civil Rights--Hillary was a "Goldwater Girl"

and supported Barry Goldwater who opposed the Civil Rights Act.

[Mother Of Four]

35. Dear Mrs. Clinton

I just posted something trying to figure out WHAT is going on with your campaign today, to click back and find this. You may want to do some reading up on MLK. What the HELL are you THINKING?!

(SOURCE...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King,_Jr.)

(CLIP FROM WIKI)

Awards and recognition

Besides winning the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize, in 1965 the American Jewish Committee presented King with the American Liberties Medallion for his "exceptional advancement of the principles of human liberty." Reverend King said in his acceptance remarks, "Freedom is one thing. You have it all or you are not free."

He is considered a saint among several Protestant churches, including the Episcopalian and Lutheran branches.

As of 2006, more than 730 cities in the United States had streets named after King. King County, Washington rededicated its name in his honor in 1986, and changed its logo to an image of his face in 2007. The city government center in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, is the only city hall in the United States to be named in honor of King.

In 1965 King was awarded the Pacem in Terris Award. It was named after a 1963 encyclical letter by Pope John XXIII that calls upon all people of good will to secure peace among all nations. Pacem in Terris is Latin for 'Peace on Earth.'

In 1966, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America awarded King the Margaret Sanger Award for "his courageous resistance to bigotry and his lifelong dedication to the advancement of social justice and human dignity."<51>

King received The Marcus Garvey Prize for Human Rights, presented by the Jamaican Government, posthumously in 1968.

In 1971, King was awarded the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Recording for his Why I Oppose the War in Vietnam.

In 1977, the Presidential Medal of Freedom was awarded posthumously to King by Jimmy Carter.<52>

King is the second most admired person in the 20th century, according to a Gallup poll.

King was voted 6th in the Person of the Century poll by TIME.<53>

King was elected the third Greatest American of all time by the American public in a contest conducted by the Discovery Channel and AOL.


Honorary degrees

Martin Luther King was awarded 20 honorary degrees from various colleges and universities in the United States and several foreign countries. They include:

Doctor of Humane Letters from Morehouse College
Doctor of Laws from Howard University
Doctor of Divinity from Chicago Theological Seminary
Doctor of Laws from Morgan State University
Doctor of Humanities from Central State University
Doctor of Divinity from Boston University
Doctor of Laws from Lincoln University
Doctor of Laws from University of Bridgeport
Doctor of Civil Law from Bard College
Doctor of Letters from Keuka College
Doctor of Divinity from Wesleyan College
Doctor of Laws from Jewish Theological Seminary
Doctor of Laws from Yale University
Doctor of Divinity from Springfield College
Doctor of Laws from Hofstra University
Doctor of Humane Letters from Oberlin College
Doctor honoris causa in Social Science from Vrije Universiteit
Doctor of Divinity from St. Peter’s College
Doctor of Civil Law from University of Newcastle upon Tyne
Doctor of Laws from Grinnell College

(END CLIP FROM WIKI)

[Nederland]

36. An apt analogy

How many people died because LBJ refused to pull out of Vietnam, a war that the previous President started?

[Mr_Monday]

39. Nice one! nt