Why has Obama not mentioned LBJ at all?

[EconomicLiberal]

LBJ's speechwriter mentions the same thing. A guy who authored some of the most important civil rights legislation, and he doesn't get a mention from Obama?

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0109/17623.html

But in terms of legislative effectiveness, one man towers over the field – the American president who used all the powers of his office and all the strength of his own persuasive abilities to present those laws as demands to the Congress, arouse the conscience of the nation, and force their passage. When it comes to delivering the goods, it can fairly be said that President Lyndon Johnson was instrumental in making possible the presidency that begins today.

So there is a line – clear, firm and unbroken – linking Lyndon Johnson and Barack Obama. That is a heavy part of the historic significance of this day.

But if Barack Obama recognizes that link – if he is in any way aware of the historic debt he owes to the president who forced open the door – he has yet to acknowledge it. Not once during his long campaign did Obama mention Johnson’s name. He accepted the nomination of his and Johnson’s party on the 100th anniversary of Johnson’s birth, and still was silent on the symbiotic relationship connecting the two.

For Barack Obama, it’s as if Lyndon Johnson had never existed.

That’s the strain of irony that threads through – and for some of us, at least – casts a shadow over this historic day.

[Lasher]

1. Vietnam toxicity.

LBJ did some good things but nobody wants to be associated with him due to his role in the Vietnam war.

[Radical Activist]

2. Casts a shadow?

Why would it cast a shadow? Because some people still worship LBJ? Give me a break. This guy has too much of a personal stake in it as a former LBJ staffer. Obama hasn't mentioned a lot of people. I'm a big LBJ fan, more than most on this board, but this is just grasping at straws.

Obama hasn't mentioned my grandma either. I'm going to cry in my Wheaties about it.

[Hanse]

3. Johnson was a racist who opposed civil rights during his term in the Senate.

And there's plenty of other reasons to hate the bastard.

[WI_DEM]

9. As Senate Majority Leader he passed two Civil Rights Bills and supported them

over the Southern bloc. He also wasn't a racist. He grew up with poor hispanics and was a teacher to them and never forgot them and when he did get the power he did more than most presidents to help the minorities and the poor.

[Neecy]

12. correct

And I believe his heart was in the right place when it came to civil rights. He certainly had his flaws but this is not one of them.

I'll add that it's not a certainty that JFK could have passed the Civil Rights Act of '64 - and Johnson made it a priority, used his political muscle, and got it passed.

[Baby Snooks]

45. Civil rights?

Maybe Obama remembered Eartha Kitt. And realized that even with their new civil rights everyone was still supposed to stay in their place and not speak. That was really the "civil rights" that LBJ believed in. And quite a few "found their place" dying in Vietnam. In the end, that was his legacy. And it was one he chose for himself.

[Hanse]

14. He also voted against banning lynching, banning poll taxes, and school desegregation.

He was notorious for racist slurs, "nigger" for example. And he would slur black people in his own staff, or Martin Luther King Jr., for example.

[Thothmes]

37. And as President

he drafted hundreds of thousands of them and taught them a trade in Vietnam.

[Submariner]

4. For my generation (draft age) LBJ was a slimeball warmonger

who lied us into a war (sound familiar?). He is seen as carrying on the wishes and plans by JFK for civil rights.

LBJ drank himself to death within 5 years of leaving office. I hope his fellow Texan Bush does the same.

[SunsetDreams]

5. He merely finished what JFK started in June of 1963 with Congress.

[WI_DEM]

10. JFK and congress didn't propose the voting rights act

which is just as important as the Civil Rights Act in many ways.

[SunsetDreams]

13. I should of specified Civil Rights Act

[nsd]

18. Merely?

I don't think Kennedy could have accomplished what Johnson did in getting the Civil Rights Act through Congress. Johnson was much more aggressive and understood congressional dynamics better.

[ChimpersMcSmirkers]

21. He did, but he also escalated the war...Some think JFK might not have done that.

My understanding is that without LBJ cramming the Civil Rights Act and the Great Society down congress's throat it wouldn't have happened. If true, that's all I really need to know...

[RandomKoolzip]

50. Yeah, but he also finished JFK.

Not a bargain, IMO.

[baldguy]

6. LBJ left a bad taste in a lot of people's mouths.

In more ways than one.

[MichiganVote]

44. LBJ was a complicated man and he made mistakes-but he was no Nixon.

[Political Tiger]

7. Obama better hurry up and mention

every past president before he gets accused of snubbing them!

[Avalux]

8. LBJ is tainted by Vietnam; too controversial.

I know he did some good things but I was raised with the idea he was a loser; much of the American public sees him the same way.

[stillcool]

11. Because of Dallas?

[MadBadger]

15. Find something new to complain about?

Oh, and Id hope hed stay away from the murderers.

[mucifer]

16. possibly because at the end of MLK's life, LBJ snubbed him because MLK was very anti war.

I guess Obama is siding with MLK over LBJ.

[Connie_Corleone]

17. Yippee! Something else to be outraged over!

[FrenchieCat]

19. Is there something that LBJ said that can be remembered?

I can't recall!

[EconomicLiberal]

20. It is not what LBJ said, but what he accomplished.

I guess one could say that is a direct inverse of Obama's political career so far.

[PM Martin]

22. True.

Give Obama a chance at least. Let us see where he takes all of us in the coming years.

[FrenchieCat]

27. Why? Did LBJ organize the United States in order to win an election,

or was one handed to him due to the tragedy that befell President Kennedy?

I agree that LBJ pushed through some great liberal programs, however, as a man and as a personality,
LBJ is remembered mainly as an accidental President who escalated the Vietnam War and strong armed folks into doing his bidding. Most of the programs he championed took root in the shortened JFK administration....and so, the "greatness" of LBJ's presidency appears to be elusive to most in the general public.


The Vietnam War escalated during Johnson's administration. Troop levels which started with 3,500 in 1965 reached 550,000 by 1968. America was divided in support of the war. America in the end did not have a chance of winning. In 1968, Johnson announced he would not run for reelection in order to spend time to get peace in Vietnam. However, peace would not be achieved until President Nixon's administration.
http://americanhistory.about.com/od/lyndonbjohnson/p/pl...

NOTE whose name is missing down below?

A Rasmussen Reports poll taken June 13–24 of 2007 asked 1,000 randomly selected adults to rate America's presidents.

George Washington (94% favorable)
Abraham Lincoln (92% favorable)
Thomas Jefferson (89% favorable)
Theodore Roosevelt (84% favorable)
Franklin D. Roosevelt (81% favorable)
John F. Kennedy (80% favorable)
John Adams (74% favorable)
James Madison (73% favorable)
Ronald Reagan (72% favorable)
Dwight Eisenhower (72% favorable)
Harry Truman (70% favorable)
Andrew Jackson (69% favorable)
Gerald Ford (62% favorable)
John Quincy Adams (59% favorable)
Ulysses S. Grant (58% favorable)
Jimmy Carter (57% favorable)
William Taft (57% favorable)
George H.W. Bush (57% favorable)
Woodrow Wilson (56% favorable)
Bill Clinton (55% favorable)


A Gallup poll about presidential greatness, taken February 9–11, 2007, asked 1006 adults nationwide, "Who do you regard as the greatest United States president?"<11>

Abraham Lincoln (18%)
Ronald Reagan (16%)
John F. Kennedy (14%)
Bill Clinton (13%)
Franklin Roosevelt (9%)
Other/None/No opinion (8%)
George Washington (7%)
Harry Truman (3%)
George W. Bush (2%)
Theodore Roosevelt (2%)
Dwight Eisenhower (2%)
Thomas Jefferson (2%)
Jimmy Carter (2%)
Gerald Ford (1%)
George H.W. Bush (1%)
Richard Nixon (0%)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_rankings_of_Uni...

General findings

George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin D. Roosevelt are consistently ranked at the top of the lists. Often ranked just below those three are Presidents Thomas Jefferson and Theodore Roosevelt. The remaining top 10 ranks are often rounded out by James Madison, Andrew Jackson, Woodrow Wilson, Harry S. Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower. Ronald Reagan and John F. Kennedy have often scored very highly in popular opinion polls, but rank highly in only some polls of historians. The bottom ranks often include Franklin Pierce, Warren G. Harding, and James Buchanan. Two presidents, William Henry Harrison and James A. Garfield, died after less than six months in office, and are sometimes not ranked.
http://www.politicalarticles.net/blog/2008/12/14/how-do... /

[EconomicLiberal]

29. You can not judge the merits of a presidency based on a popularity poll.

Some of the greatest liberal programs ever originated under LBJ's administration... Medicare, Medicaid, The Great Society, among others.

I am well aware of the history of LBJ and the Vietnam War. However, the Vietnam War should not distract us from many of LBJ's numerous accomplishments.

Let us not forget that LBJ was re-elected in 1964 by a margin larger than Reagan or FDR ever achieved.

[FrenchieCat]

33. Again,

War is quite important in the larger scheme of things. Odd how you overlook such.

LBJ was elected in 1964 by a large margin, mainly because the country was still in mourning due to JFK's tragic assassination in November of 1963....as I mentioned in my original post.

[EconomicLiberal]

34. I never said that war wasn't important in the grand scheme.

It most certainly is, but it would be nice to judge the merits of LBJ's accomplishments away from the Vietnam banner.

And yes, while LBJ was re-elected in a landslide in large part due to JFK's assassination, he was still elected, and I think that eliminates the point you were trying to make that LBJ was some sort of un-elected maverick who did not have the mandate of the people behind him.

[FrenchieCat]

35. You can't judge LBJ in a vaccum of some of his accomplishment

and not others....in all in total.

As far as calling LBJ and un-elected maverick, I never said that.....
Although you have called Obama many negative things since joining this forum.

[Thothmes]

38. Distract us from the 32,000 Americans Killed

200,000 wounded and the 2 to 4 million Vietnames killed or wounded. Naw we would want that to distract us from his elevation to Olympus.

[Clio the Leo]

23. Because he doesn't need to court the left....

..... he talks a lot about Lincoln and Reagan because they are the two most venerated President's of the right. And the right still needs some convincing.

Go 'head on son.

[Uzybone]

24. Which democrat mentions LBJ?

Vietnam made him a pariah. Unfortunate IMO, but thats how it is.

[EconomicLiberal]

25. LBJ has some very important accomplishments that every Democrat should be grateful for

Medicare, Medicaid, the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the 1964 Voting Rights Act.

It would be nice if we could look at his presidency and not see JUST Vietnam.

[Uzybone]

26. I agree with you on this topic only, but its not just Obama

unfortunately everyone sees Vietnam when we mention LBJ. Its too bad but thats what happens when 50K American lives are sacrificed for nothing.

[MichiganVote]

43. Nixon and the Congress had their share of blood on their hands too

[No Elephants]

28. LBJ is a lot more controversial than the icons Obama has elected to

evoke.


I don't think even LBJ, with all his political and whip skills, could have pushed the Civil Rights Act through Congress if JFK had not been assassinated. Still, it was a pivotal event in the lives of women and minorities and therefore the nation.

[fadedrose]

30. LBJ should be fondly remembered by nonwhites..

maybe President Obama is saving a sentence about him for his speech tomorrow.

[hulklogan]

31. *sigh* More poutrage from the Great Society "community."

Posts like this are causing all the division around here. We will not have you relics of the 60s ruin this for us!!11!!!!

[RayOfHope]

32. Damn him! Start impeachment proceedings now! That ungrateful bastard!

[TheKentuckian]

36. Probably to avoid getting blasted for "revering a warmonger"

Just like he avoids teeing off on Ray Gun to steer clear of that backlash.

[H2O Man]

39. LBJ was mentioned

during the primary. It did not help create unity.

[FrenchieCat]

40. Oh yeah.....Right around this time last year.

About a week before MLK's birthday.

I remember now.
It was something I was trying to forget.

[girl_interrupted]

47. Actually LBJ'S landslide was bigger than Obama's

As were Reagan's, Nixon & FDR's. So as far as "organizing" a country, not sure if it's that at all, I think Obama was the right man at the right time, after 8 years of bush this country had had enough. But I think what is most important is that the racial barrier was broken, and that more than anything, it's what makes Obama's election so important. It's like Dr. Martin Luther King's words of judging a person by the contents of their character and not the color of their skin, have truly come to pass and that should all make us feel good. As far as LBJ, passing the civil rights and voting rights act, was a major accomplishment. But Vietnam seems to have ruined his legacy forever. I have some friends who say Lincoln freed the slaves to use black only bathrooms, while LBJ actually gave them civil and voting rights, something they never had before. To get that through was no easy feat, and LBJ did work very hard to get it passed, and you have to give him credit for that. In the long run, it did cost the Democratic party southern votes for years to come. But it was the right thing to do. And he did it. Will it ever make up for Vietnam? So far, doesn't seem to.

I'll give credit to LBJ for that & the fact he decided not to run again, something I wish bush would have done. Either way LBJ like Nixon, will be remembered for Vietnam, more than anything else and thats something everyone wants to forget about.

I know Obama admires Lincoln very much, and that is understandable, but given the times Obama seems to be more in FDR's position, than any other president. Sometimes I wish FDR was given more credit. But thats a personal preference. Doesn't really matter who you favor, it's what can be accomplished for the country, because more than any president, this country and it's people are what really counts.

But past is past and the future looks so much brighter with our very soon to be President Obama!

[JVS]

41. "I VOTED FOR LBJ!"

[Uzybone]

42. How could we forget

I'm glad he wasn't mentioned much after.

[Tutonic]

46. I think LBJ was not spympathetic to the plight of blacks. He under-

stood history and he reacted. However, I'm confused by your post--are you implying that LBJ did something magnificant for blacks?

[terisan]

48. He did. He muscled the legislation through and said he knew he was losing the South

for the Democratic Party for a generation---The Democratic Party depended on Southern racists for decades--all through the New Deal.

[terisan]

51. Like Republicans don't mention Eisenhower?

[PBS Poll-435]

49. I agree

LBJ Freeway is in need of serious disaster relief.

WORST. FREEWAY. EVER.