BHO - LBJ or JFK?

Obama will be sworn in as our 44th President on January 20th, 2009. Already he is being compared to LBJ, Lincoln, Roosevelt, and Kennedy!!! I cant ever recall, nor have I been able to find such comparisons being laid on a President Elect! The chances of President Obama coming near earshot of the transformational policies of the "New Deal" in the next four years are so unlikely. Clearly, big changes are desperately needed, but I'm doubtful we will see transformational changes (such as) overhauling, and completely reforming Credit card companies legal right to insanely charge whatever interest rates they like on the backs of the poor. (and look for the Credit Card Companies to be the next big Industry to go bankrupt (and boy did they have it coming...and Oooooooooooooooh No bailout for you!!))...but real change in this toxic and still Lobbyist driven political environment??? The People voted for Hope, but come on... will the people get their due ahead of AIG, Wallstreet, Ford, GM,??? We are in the back of the line.

I don't want to say Obama isn't capable of becoming more than simply being the first African American President, but how in the world can you say Obama's name in the same breath as Roosevelt (Either TR or FDR) or Lincoln, before he has even been sworn in??? We desperately need a"get things done Politician like LBJ. I'm not sure people can appreciate just how extraordinary a politician Johnson was, nor how much he contributed to the American way of life. In many ways we would not HAVE an Obama some 40 years later without LBJ.

Talk about a game changer...

LBJ as a CONGRESSMAN. gave Electricity, (yes Electricity!) to his West Texas district as part of Roosevelt's New Deal. The people of West Texas suffering through the great depression, didn't have power in their homes nor on their streets. In 1957 as a Texas SENATOR and Senate Majority leader, he convinced Southern Democrats and Northern Liberals to pass the first Civil Rights Bill since reconstruction. Compared to LBJ, BHO's "Pre-Presidential" resume is kind of weak, wouldn't you say?

So in reality, it was LBJ who led the charge for Civil Rights in the Senate, not Kennedy, yet it was Kennedy who won the 1960 Nomination. LBJ became JFK's #2. LBJ and "#2" Never quite went together. Bobby Kennedy didn't like him, as did most of JFK's Cabinet... He was the outsider. And then one sad day in November (exactly 45 years to this day in 1963), LBJ became the 36th President of the United States. Remarkably, he convinced the entire Kennedy Cabinet to stay and help begin the end of Segregation after suffering an eight-month-long filibuster, with the Civil Rights act of 1964. I'm not sure (and many others also believe) Kennedy could not have got it done by 1964, or perhaps at all!. Quoting a Historian "This Southern President broke the Southern system of racism".

As President, LBJ declared war on Poverty. 35 Million Americans lived below the poverty line at the time. So, with that, the "Great Society" was born. This was the son of the "New Deal". LBJ wanted to help everybody, not just the poor. He won in 1964 in a landslide. LBJ gave us Medicare, Medicaid, and federal education funding, which continue to this day. (Of course, those programs years later have been sliced diced, marginalized and minimized).

For all LBJ has done, he simply does not get the love, appreciation, and respect he deserves... On the other hand Kennedy gets all the Glory in a revisionist "Camelot" and all the Kennedy Moxi. At the end of the day, What did Kennedy do while he was President? He had about 1000 (1036 days to be exact). He gave us the Peace Corps, one hell of a inaugural speech, and yep, he gave some of us "Hope" (Play Twilight Zone Music and insert Charismatic Black President here). But I digress. Lets Hope (and you gotta have Hope) President Obama will achieve greatness and rise to the Zenith of the unappreciated greatness of an LBJ, and not the hype of a JFK.

Peace Out!