We need a Democratic Leader like LBJ...

[kentuck]

Do you think Joe Lieberman would have pulled his bullshit tricks with the Republicans if LBJ was his leader? LBJ would have put a big fish hook in his puckering lips and straightened out his ass real quick. Republicans would never think about "privatizing" Social Security if we had a leader that could keep his troops in line like LBJ. They would know there would be a filibuster and there would be few traitors to entice to their side. Nowadays, Democrats never know if they have the votes or not - because they cannot trust their Senators to vote with the Party - even when it is necessary.

[pop goes the weasel]

1. Indeed we do

My parents were just the other day longing for LBJ again. And they couldn't stand him during the 1960s!

[Melodybe]

12. LBJ was totally in kahootz with Bushco

Bushco killed Kennedy and LBJ was in on it.

He gets no love from me.

[kentuck]

14. And Clinton got a blow job...

and was a friend of the Bushes bringing in cocaine into the Mena airport...uh-huh..

[Hippo_Tron]

24. LBJ created the most domestic programs since FDR

No President since him can even compare in liberal credentials. LBJ is also the reason that African Americans can vote today. To even suggest that someone like LBJ was in line with the Bushes is absolutely ridiculous. Johnson and Kennedy, although not great friends, believed in the same things.

Of course, it is way too hard to forget Vietnam, the black mark on Johnson's presidency.

[sasha031]

2. So sad about LBJ

He did so much good, ...if only he didn't listen to the Pentagon, we would not have ended up in Nam. I believe he paid for that in his heart, they say he never slept.
Today everything is turned upside down, you have lower middle class white folks asking for tort reform and tax breaks.
The language has been lost somehow, through right wing policy's people have become dumber and dumber.

[NNadir]

3. Without Vietnam, Johnson could have been a fine President.

The problem is that Vietnam is always a part of the equation and always will be.

[bluestateguy]

4. Lieberman would have been just like LBJ

He would have been good on civil rights and domestic policy, and he would have gotten us into an unwinnable war overseas.

[demnan]

5. I agree

LBJ caved into the Republicans on Vietnam - he was a lot like Lieberman. The war against poverty agenda was Kennedy's and LBJ followed through with that from political pressure.

LBJ was a big stock holder in Brown and Root.

[kentuck]

6. I disagree...

Lieberman couldn't carry LBJ's balls in a wheelbarrow...and I say this as a Vietnam veteran that knew firsthand LBJ's foreign policy decisions. Lieberman is a sniveling coward...as are several others that need their asses jerked in line by a strong leader. Some things are not compromisable for the Democratic Party. We shouldn't have to guess how they might vote - we should know. They piss me off to the max. They are what is wrong with the Democratic Party, in my humble opinion.

[oasis]

7. Just read an article that compared the actions of two Texas presidents

following a major hurricane. One entered a storm shelter that had the power shut down, shined a flashlight on his face and told the crowd, "I'm your president and I'm here to help".

You know who the other one was.

[tritsofme]

8. LBJ was a national disgrace

58,000 young men died in a war for nothing, so he could have his glory.

Too many people I knew should getting ready to retire and be grandparents today, but instead they died in the jungles of Vietnam.

I'm sure he had a very interesting conversation with his Maker.

Until recently LBJ was the president I hated most in my lifetime, even above Nixon.

[kentuck]

9. An oversight...

Yes, he carried on the war in Vietnam, rather than stopping it. It was part of our foreign policy at least as far back as Eisenhower, perhaps before. However, his war on poverty helped a lot of people in Appalachia, including yours truly, who may not have been here today without his programs to help people. Also, I believe Medicare was started under LBJ and no matter what you may think of that program now, it helped a lot of elderly people to get medical care. So i don't think it is as simple as saying he was a national disgrace. I disagree with you.

Anyway, I am mostly referring to his "leadership" abilities, not his programs or his failures in Vietnam. Even then, more people died in Vietnam under Nixon than died under Johnson.

[tritsofme]

10. When they killed Kennedy there were 16,000 GIs in Vietnam

Johnson peaked at more than 600,000, he escalated it far beyond any previous President.

Johnson obliterated any good will he earned in the wake of Kennedy's assasination and his Great Society programs through his needless war.

And yes, he was a disgrace. I just hope that 40 years from now Bush's image isn't as revamped as Johnson and Nixon's are today.

[kentuck]

11. I think it peaked at 548,000...

I was there when it peaked. And no, he was not a disgrace to the Democratic Party although the Vietnam War was a "disgrace" in many people 's eyes. I don't think the Great Society was "obliterated". I think you are wrong.

[tritsofme]

13. Then we'll have to agree to disagree

Because I hold Johnson personally responsible for the deaths of my friends and family in Vietnam, and I always will.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

16. He had Humphrey push through civil rights laws,

and for that I cannot totally condemn him.

[yella_dawg]

15. Vietnam was a pet project of Bush the Elder

(Prescot) and the prime mover was McNamara, who recently admitted urging LBJ to escalate. LBJ hated the Vietnam conflict worse than anyone, and was convinced (by McNamara and others) that escalation was the best way to get out quickly.

LBJ was an old school iron-fist politician who used whatever methods were necessary to get into office. But By Damn, he did the job with integrity while he was there. Human rights and racial equality made huge leaps forward in the climate produced by his administration. The Vietnam war was a horror, but let's put the blame where it really lies. History tells us that it was a Prescott Bush (Nixon's mentor) and Averill Harriman (Bush business partner during WWII)who staged the war and pushed its prosecution. In short, it was the work of the military-industrial complex Eisenhower warned us about.

LBJ had his faults, but in Vietnam, his major fault was listening to the men he trusted to advise him.

[Outer_Limit]

17. Didn't LBJ get reports that the war was going very badly yet still

continued?

[tritsofme]

22. Johnson gets no pass from me.

The buck stops at the Oval Office, no matter what party you are from.

[Silverhair]

23. The FINAL decision is the President's.

We don't let W off by saying that he got bad advice. Instead we insist, correctly, that he is accountable. The same reasoning applies to LBJ. The final decision was his, and no one else's, regardless of who was advising.

[GRLMGC]

18. You've got guts

LBJ is one of my favorites just because his Presidency was so full of contradictions. I think Vietnam was a horrible tragedy and I think Civil rights and the Great Society were incredible achievements. I don't think they cancel eachother out either. He may have done screwed up things but he was indeed a Democratic leader who knew how to make his party unite. He is so unendingly fascinating to me.

[kentuck]

20. Whether or not we agree with his policies or not...

and it would probalby be close to unanimous that no one agreed with Vietnam, but he was a leader. He commanded respect and he was not afraid to play dirty pool with the Republicans or the Democrats if he needed their vote. I think we could use some of that type of "leadership". Just my opinion.

[bluecrush]

26. I too, find LBJ to be a fascinating character

and I know Vietnam was his downfall. But he had the courage to advance JFK's civil rights agenda despite knowing the move would turn the deep south republican.

[bmbmd]

19. I knew LBJ.

family friend. I have never known a finer man. He made his share of mistakes, and fired himself as a consequence. I call that integrity and love of country.

[tritsofme]

21. Fired himself?

He decided not to run for reelection when McCarthy almost beat him in New Hampshire...that's hardly firing one's self.

He left office in disgrace.

[sendero]

25. LBJ is a perfect example of all mankind..

... no one is all good and no one is all bad.

[Qibing Zero]

27. Just repeat after me

If it weren't for the war...

If it weren't for the war...


Really though, he could have done so much if it weren't for Vietnam.