Is LBJ the most influential and powerful liberal leader in history?

LeBron James

 

He was about as good ever at getting congress to do what he wanted. His overall accomplishments are often overlooked because he replaced Kennedy through disaster and he bailed due to the Vietnam War. He also was disliked by many people in the know because he was not above cracking the whip to get what he wanted, regardless of whom he alientated.

Had he been elected President under different conditions I believe he would be remembered more fondly. As far as Vietnam War I do not really blame him, as his position was the one held by both parties at the time.

 

Without spending hours thinking about it, and digging into source material, I would rank Lyndon second, behind Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Jack Kennedy would be second, had he lived. In my humble opinion, of course. An argument could be made for FDR's cousin, Teddy Roosevelt (again, in my opinion), to at least make the list of most influential.

 

I would say so. His programs will have a greater lasting impact than what FDR or anyone else really did. Medicare and Social Security make up a huge chunk of the budget and they will continue to do so.

 

if my aunt had balls she'd be my uncle.

hey hey LBJ how many kids did you kill today?

gulf of tonkin was a good one too.

In 1965, President Johnson commented privately: "For all I know, our Navy was shooting at whales out there."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_of_Tonkin_incident

I believe in the end it was 58,000 US DEAD

http://www.mrfa.org/vnstats.htm

There's the brown and root:
http://www.weeklywire.com/ww/08-28-00/austin_pols_feature2.html

"according to his biographer Ronnie Dugger, much of the money he got from Brown & Root came in cash. In return, Johnson steered lucrative federal contracts to the company. Those contracts helped Brown & Root become a global construction powerhouse that today employs 20,000 people and operates in more than 100 countries."

also a classy guy:
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/S3GT9UN7nDo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I'm also not convinced all the way that he wasn't involved in JFK murder.

Influential? maybe?

POS? for sure

 

Robert Caro's most recent book (really, the entire series) makes an interesting point about this: LBJ likely knew that he could never have been elected outright as a southerner. His fear of rejection was so strong that his indecision regarding running strained relationships with his loyalists when it came to challenging Kennedy in 1960. He began to suspect (and Caro certainly hints at it) that his political career was over, as JFK and RFK were leaning toward kicking him off of the ticket in 1964.

Johnson's swift and decisive assumption of power in the aftermath of the assassination is awesome. Once he was in command -as president, majority leader- he didn't relinquish it easily.

 

Don't like him, but do respect him. Especially compared to his ridiculously overrated predecessor.

 

The appropriation of that acronym is somewhat unsettling insofar as young black men aren't as aware of his contributions as we should be.

 

And much like the man himself, whatever ground you gained in the post is quickly undone by false and destructive speculation bolstered by lies, paranoia and personal bias. Vietnam was a failure, and LBJ's to be sure; but any other viable Presidential candidate would have expanded and continued the occupation. Truman and Eisenhower reinforced the failed policy of containment and refused checks on the power and influence originally gained by FDR. Your JFK murder speculation is plainly stupid; it's driven by the same blind, revisionist anti-authoritarianism that bolsters birthers, truthers and Holocaust deniers.

 

That distinction would actually go to Woodrow Wilson.

 

Regardless of whether you agree or disagree with his position, what's truly amazing was that we actually had laws that matter PASS during that era in history. It seems that back then, the government wasn't interested in gridlocks in order to ensure that the interests of the few are preserved. Back then, when they find something wrong, they actually try to solve it. What an amazing concept!

 

What about this guy?


<a href="http://photobucket.com/images/fdr" target="_blank"><img src="http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r125/alexcathy/fdr.jpg" border="0" alt="fdr photo: FDR fdr.jpg"/></a>

 

obligatory Woodrow Wilson quote

"Mr. [Colonel Edward] House is my second personality. He is my independent self. His thoughts and mine are one."

 

I would suggest a visit to the LBJ museum on the UT campus along with a visit back to his house/museum in the Hill Country tio remind folks of when government was run by folks who believed in it.

 

We had uglier, meaner problems with easier solutions back then, and less legacy costs against which to balance them.

 

An excellent suggestion, glynch, one that would be beneficial to understanding LBJ, regardless of one's political affiliation. He was a very complex man, one who's background growing up gave him an insight into the lives of working class Americans, those struggling to make ends meet, that many who rose to his level in politics didn't possess.