Kevin Drum asks…
…should Obama be more like LBJ?
Perhaps he should have asked, “could Obama be more like LBJ?” But either way the answer is (drum roll please): NO, because the question is absurd.
This is like asking should (or could) a cat be more like a dog. Or water more like fire. Or a planet more like an atom. Or whatever strange combination of dissimilar things one could think of. Because like both LBJ and Obama or hate them both, or like just one and hate the other (doesn’t matter which, for the purposes of this discussion), or think it would be a good thing if Obama resembled LBJ or think it really doesn’t matter much (the latter seems to be Drum’s take), it’s hard to think of two more dissimilar people in temperament, skill set, or experience than Lyndon Baines Johnson and Barack Obama.
Obama couldn’t be like LBJ if he read every book ever written on him, interviewed all the living people who’d ever encountered him, took classes in how to resemble him, and listened to all the tapes in the LBJ library with that purpose in mind.
LBJ was probably the nation’s foremost authority on how Congress operates. Obama is not. LBJ knew exactly how to work people. Obama does not. LBJ knew how to wield power most effectively on the personal level and to strategize. Obama does not. LBJ had a ribald, over-the-top sense of humor and an inexhaustible fund of earthy stories (and earthy behavior, too). Obama does not. LBJ was hot; Obama cool. And on and on and on.
Similarities? They both were tall, they both were president, they both were Democrats, they both were married to one person (although LBJ was famously unfaithful, in his heart it was Ladybird all the way), and they both had two daughters.
I’ve seen this question posed before. While it might seem, to some disaffected liberals, that such a case would be good, LBJ in the end was a one term president. No matter what he did before the presidency, or how successful, in that sense, I wish them all the luck on that. Some ‘what-ifs’ are stupid on their face in some pretty obvious ways. Did anyone think that question out?
Besides, while twisting arms in back rooms works for Democrats on other Democrats in power, it doesn’t work well with the American people or in public. All of that power control was pretty much kept off the front pages, other than minor kudos in the “news” about his power wrangling very generally.
you mean like the feminists sounding like professor Higgens asking:
all you have to do is modernize his points and you have what we are doing now..
Would you be slighted if I didn’t speak (about what i feel) for hours?
Would you be livid if I had a drink or two? a large soft-drink? a cigarette?
Would you be wounded if I never sent you flowers?
If I wanted to go dutch dinner would you bellow?
Would you complain if I took out another fellow? not at all, they are for lbgt..
ok.. sorry… but i coudnt resist once you realized that you can first find out if the question is worth entertaining.
just think of how much desease, misery, lack of schooling, child abuse, and so much more could hav ebeen avoided if we just could answer
why cant a woman be a man?
because she is a woman stupid…
failure to answer that has women acting like men, men hibernating till the storm passes, and us entertaining all kinds of stupid crap as if its serious erudition, and we are tapping the questions of life that the prior generations were not smart enough to boether with.
eh. they were SMART enough NOT to bother with it and have lives, families, and persue their happines.
unlike what came which was stupid, selfish, worked against what they wanted, and pursued every misery they could find as if chasing misery you will find happiness.
oh. and geniuses for it.
cant wait till that new conceptualization of all of math comes out.. no?
but it will have to wait as the victory over manhole covers verbiage is not complete yet.
glad to see we are first asking whether the question should be argued rather than accepting that premise and proceeding along forgetting our permission was given that way
Shouldn’t smarter than Jefferson obviate as ruthless as Johnson?
“Obama couldn’t be like LBJ if he read every book ever written on him…” That’s the thing– Obama would read a book on LBJ and think he could do the same, and do it better.
roc scssrs: actually, I think Obama would just read the first chapter of the book and think he’d mastered it.
neo,
You have it right with that comment. Obama is an expert at learning a bit of terminology and then pretending he understands the topic. It’s amazing how many supposedly smart people couldn’t see through his shallowness. I just read about Johnson’s early life on Wiki. There is no way that Obama could ever walk in his shoes. The contrast between Johnson’s family heritage and Obama’s lack of family is amazing. Obama has had to invent himself from day one.
Good stuff….
You have it right with that comment. Obama is an expert at learning a bit of terminology and then pretending he understands the topic. It’s amazing how many supposedly smart people couldn’t see through his shallowness. I just read about Johnson’s early life on Wiki. There is no way that Obama could ever walk in his shoes. The contrast between Johnson’s family heritage and Obama’s lack of family is amazing. Obama has had to invent himself from day one.
Like him or not and like what he did or not (I don’t like either), LBJ knew how to get things done and worked at it.
Even Obama’s “stellar accomplishment” (Obamacare) was subcontracted to Pelosi and Reid.
Obama’s a BS artist who only knows how to sell snake oil.
Say ten words quick describing Obama.
The third one was a curse word, right?
LBJ: pulled a beagle up by the ears
Obama: ate a dog’s ears.
Johnson: born and died in Stonewall, TX
Obama: got Stoned in Choom City.
Obama’s Attorney General stonewalled Congress.
Johnson: Johnson City named for an ancestor
Obama: Obamanation named for Himself
I agree that it is absurd to urge Obama to be more like LBJ. It is akin to asking a horse to be like a fish. No can do.
The summer before I entered 4th grade, my family visited Washington DC. We got visitors’ passes from our Senator, and observed the Senate chamber. I have a vague memory of seeing and hearing Senator and Majority Leader Johnson, whose TX accent stood out.
Some years later when LBJ was President, an elementary school classmate of my brother write Lady Bird about some aspect of her beautification programs. Several weeks later, my brother’s classmate got called to the principal’s office. Lady Bird was on the line. Her kindness in calling a little kid, which she had no obligation to do, is one reason I am a big Lady Bird fan.
Bearingsly, Sharp has the compass. Throw him the rotary machine. Won’t do to have him without it, will it?
Link to photo of Johnson holding one of his two beagles by the ears. One was named Him and the other, drum roll, Her!
http://abcnews.go.com/meta/search/imageDetail?format=plain&source=http://abcnews.go.com/images/Politics/ht_lyndon_johnson_dog_ears_thg_120215
I seem to recall a different photo of Johnson dog- ear pulling. He probably did it more than twice.
“Obama is an expert at learning a bit of terminology and then pretending he understands the topic. It’s amazing how many supposedly smart people couldn’t see through his shallowness.”
Perhaps that is because so many of these supposedly smart people are themselves experts only in learning terminology and deploying it to generate the false impression that they possess understanding.
it’s hard to think of two more dissimilar people in temperament, skill set, or experience than Lyndon Baines Johnson and Barack Obama.
Make that Barack Hussein Obama. It not only restores symmetry, it implicitly makes a trenchant point. Typing “Lyndon Hussein Johnson” brings a smile to the typist.
But not having read the article, maybe Drum’s point was that Obama should decline to run for re-election. In that, at least, he could emulate Johnson.
Obama is a lot of bad things but being a dumb-ass is not one of them. In other words, the man has the requisite intelligence to be able to change his positions, if he wanted to.
And that’s the problem. Obama is not interested in changing anything in order to make something work. In fact, for his purposes everything is working as planned.
Bring down America. Tarnish American values. Head for a “global community”. Diminish excellence. I will tell you straight up that if Obama were being honest he would cop to these goals. Straight up.