Couldn't Obama have chosen to emulate LBJ in the "kicking the Senate's ass" way, instead

[villager]

...of the "quagmire way?"

Sigh...

[VMI Dem]

1. Obama is a far cry from LBJ.

FAR.

[5thGenDemocrat]

6. Diametrical opposites

Obama believes in the carrot, LBJ believed in the stick. I think we're going waist-deep into the Big Muddy either way.
John
ON EDIT: And you can get a rough estimate of my regard for President Johnson by the fact I've used his image as my avatar for six or seven years now. He got us into Vietnam, which was a disaster, but he got civil rights, voting rights, Medicare, Medicaid, Clean Air, aid to the cities, highway beautification and other fine, liberal legislation done on his watch.
So far, President Obama's accomplished escalating an inherited war.

[no_hypocrisy]

2. Two different styles of using power.

LBJ may have been a school teacher in his former life, but he more than compensated as he rose in the Senate to the Presidency. He took no prisoners or BS.

Obama played by the Rules, and that's about it. Fair play and civility are nice but they really don't take you that far in Washington.

[redqueen]

3. No. FDR had a mostly compliant congress.

That is a luxury Obama most certainly does not enjoy.

[villager]

4. well, I was talking about LBJ -- WWII ended more quickly than these wars have or will

...so ironically, wasn't the "quagmire" -- in spite of giving us the eye-opening realization that we're a species both capable of Auschwitz, and looking the other way -- that the current conflagrations are...

[redqueen]

5. D'oh!

As for LBJ, the arm-twisting and borderline blackmailing is not his style.

[villager]

8. I'm frankly beginning to wish it was...

n/t

[redqueen]

9. I'm sure you're not alone in that. (nt)

[notesdev]

7. You need to be your own man to do that

Not Goldman's.

[rateyes]

10. LBJ believed that if a bill passed by a large margin

then he left too much on the table.

We need a health bill that will pass by 51 votes, even if it has to be done by reconciliation. STRONG public option with mandates. We need a Congress that will NOT fund an increase in American troops ANYWHERE.

[gateley]

11. I think he needs to send Biden down to deliver a few messages. nt