LBJ : The Architect Of The Great Society
Thursday August 28, 2008
Here is his legacy, not just as a legislator, but as an executive who understood Congress, having risen from that body to the White House:
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Comments
NYT has an op/ed piece today, 8/29, http://tinyurl.com/6y9hb2 that ties Obama to Johnson’s legacy. M
Oh, Wow. Thanks Meg. I don’t feel quite so bad that I missed the actually anniversary of his birthday now. This is a must read.
Excerpt:
AS I watch Barack Obama’s speech to the Democratic convention tonight, I will be remembering another speech: the one that made Martin Luther King cry. And I will be thinking: Mr. Obama’s speech — and in a way his whole candidacy — might not have been possible had that other speech not been given.
That speech was President Lyndon Johnson’s address to Congress in 1965 announcing that he was about to introduce a voting rights act, and in some respects Mr. Obama’s candidacy is the climax — at least thus far — of a movement based not only on the sacrifices and heroism of the Rev. Dr. King and generations of black fighters for civil rights but also on the political genius of Lyndon Baines Johnson, who as it happens was born 100 years ago yesterday.
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http://bit.ly/johnson_1965