Adherence to the constitution, and perhaps Natural Law..

[Amskeptic]

I can see why we are having troubles agreeing..You hear or read some stuff, and I hear and read some stuff, but not the same stuff, I think he knew of the FAKE Gulf of Tonkin incident....Which outweighss any good democratic stuff he did..

Not necessarily. He was instrumental in passing the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Act (as someone who believes in following the Constitution, I am sure that you'd agree that it was a damn shame we had to spell it out 150 years later, but LBJ did just that) of '64-'65. He was a giant in driving the Great Society forward. . . THAT SAID . . . he was painfully emmeshed in the Vietnam War with generals screaming at him to get the job done,and citizens screaming at him to get out too, and he made bad decisions, some of which may very well have been deception. On the heels of Kennedy and the Bay of Pigs fiasco, and Nixon and Kissinger secretly decimating Cambodia and Laos, and Reagan and Ollie North both lying their asses off about the Iran-Contras affair, and GHWB and his kid Neil with the S &L debacle, and GWB and Cheney lying at the American people about WMD in Iraq, and Clinton lying about getting a quicky, Johnson was truly in the list of Presidential Liars, but do not turn away from his accomplishments. They are real.
Colin

[chitwnvw]

Lyndon Johnson immolated himself for civil rights and voting rights right beside Martin Luther King, and he drove our entire society towards the principles that are the bedrock of our Constitution, at great personal cost. Do not reduce Johnson to speech-giver.

He was a giant.

Johnson is interesting. Wasn't he the last president that didn't opt to spend every last second he could in office. He chose to exit off the stage. I wonder what led up to that.

As much as we can all see the writing on the wall, unexpected things do happen. The people in power aren't machines, they are humans, chinks in the armor do appear...Sometimes we do what we have to, sometimes we do the right thing...

[Amskeptic]

Wasn't he the last president that didn't opt to spend every last second he could in office. He chose to exit off the stage. I wonder what led up to that.

He served his term. He opted out during the campaign for the next term when Bobby Kennedy jumped in. He knew Vietnam was an imbroglio. He did have character, he was bruising and self-centered, but he was also decent.
Colin

[dingo]

LBJ: Have we got anybody that's got a military mind that can give us some military plans for winning that war?

RM: Well, Buzz Wheeler is going out with me.

LBJ: I know but he went out last time and he just came back with, with planes, that's all he had in mind, wasn't it?

RM: Well we, uh, yes, well he had more than that but he emphasized the planes. And the planes, Max Taylor agrees, are not the answer to the problem. Whether we should have more planes or not is another question, but it's not going to make any difference in the short run, that's certain.

LBJ: Let's get some more of something, my friend, because I'm gonna have a heart attack if you don't get me something. I'm just sitting here every day and uh, this war that I'm winning and I'm not doing much about fightin' it, and uh I'm not doing much about winnin' it, and I just read about it and uh. Let's get somebody that wants to do something besides drop a bomb, but uh, that can go in and take in after these damn fellas and run them back where they belong. It looks like-

RM: Looks like we want to tell Kahn-

[recording interupted- tone indicates that material was removed by National Archives for national security reasons]

LBJ: Well, we need to shoot that guy. We need somebody over there that can give us better plans than we've got, because what we've got is what we've had since '54. We're not getting it done, we're, we're losing so we need something new. It's uh, if you pitch this ol' southpaw every day and you wind up as the Washington Senators and you lose, well uh we'd better go us get us a new pitcher.

RM: I know it-

LBJ: Let's find one. And tell those damn old generals over there to find one for ya, or you gonna go out there yourself...

[Cindy]

I can see why we are having troubles agreeing..You hear or read some stuff, and I hear and read some stuff, but not the same stuff, I think he knew of the FAKE Gulf of Tonkin incident....Which outweighss any good democratic stuff he did..

Not necessarily. He was instrumental in passing the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Act (as someone who believes in following the Constitution, I am sure that you'd agree that it was a damn shame we had to spell it out 150 years later, but LBJ did just that) of '64-'65. He was a giant in driving the Great Society forward. . . THAT SAID . . . he was painfully emmeshed in the Vietnam War with generals screaming at him to get the job done,and citizens screaming at him to get out too, and he made bad decisions, some of which may very well have been deception. On the heels of Kennedy and the Bay of Pigs fiasco, and Nixon and Kissinger secretly decimating Cambodia and Laos, and Reagan and Ollie North both lying their asses off about the Iran-Contras affair, and GHWB and his kid Neil with the S &L debacle, and GWB and Cheney lying at the American people about WMD in Iraq, and Clinton lying about getting a quicky, Johnson was truly in the list of Presidential Liars, but do not turn away from his accomplishments. They are real.
Colin

i read something once about how he felt the moment he found out he had become the president. ill try to find the quote, but it had serious humility and it showed a huge awareness in him of his sudden responsibility.

[steve74baywin]

Wow, I was looking for something else and came across this thread.
We have a history going way back.
I did not recall a thread started by me with this subject.
Started January 2008
In many ways we are still talking about the same stuff.
Some of the same people, and some new people.