Daniel Henninger: Why Obama Is No LBJ
[Daniel Henninger is a columnist for the Wall Street Journal.]
...Barack Obama as LBJ is a metaphor worth pondering if one wants to understand Mr. Obama's difficulties with [his health care] project, and his presidency. The more useful comparison, though, isn't to LBJ's tortured 1960s presidency but to the famed Senate Majority Leader who in 1957 got a civil rights act passed....
From that January until Aug. 2, Johnson engaged in a mind-boggling effort of legislative politics, a story told across hundreds of pages in Robert Caro's "Master of the Senate." Johnson had to overcome the threat of a killer filibuster by the Old South Democratic bloc—led by the brilliant Richard Russell of Georgia—and the animosity and suspicion of northern liberals. Passing the bill, which enhanced voting rights for black Americans, was a remarkable legislative achievement. No civil rights legislation had passed since 1875.
Many possible comparisons between that effort and now are evident, few favorable to now....
LBJ spent his relentless energies and skills over seven months mostly on finding the means to assemble difficult Senate alliances (securing a bloc of Western-state senators by promising them, in secret, long-sought federal dams). This Congress has used up its energies with fights over endless policy detail. The "filibuster-proof" Senate let them think the institution's internal politics didn't matter. It always matters....
Most relevant for this moment: The Civil Rights Act of 1957 was "incremental." LBJ decided he had to prove it possible to pass notable, if partial, civil-rights legislation—"break the virginity," is how he put it. This meant abandoning two big provisions in the bill, enraging some, but not all, of the Senate's liberals. In short, jam-breaking compromise, of which there's been little with ObamaCare. I'm guessing the one person in the White House who has read Caro's book is Rahm Emanuel, the incrementalist....
The idea that Obama should become LBJ, even in the glare of modern media, reveals how other-worldly our politics has become. Only a dilettante would believe a Barack Obama can walk in off the street and be LBJ. To read Caro's account of the hours, years, effort, savvy and muscle memory Lyndon Johnson built over a career to become "LBJ" is to know why Washington "doesn't work" anymore....
Read entire article at WSJ
...Barack Obama as LBJ is a metaphor worth pondering if one wants to understand Mr. Obama's difficulties with [his health care] project, and his presidency. The more useful comparison, though, isn't to LBJ's tortured 1960s presidency but to the famed Senate Majority Leader who in 1957 got a civil rights act passed....
From that January until Aug. 2, Johnson engaged in a mind-boggling effort of legislative politics, a story told across hundreds of pages in Robert Caro's "Master of the Senate." Johnson had to overcome the threat of a killer filibuster by the Old South Democratic bloc—led by the brilliant Richard Russell of Georgia—and the animosity and suspicion of northern liberals. Passing the bill, which enhanced voting rights for black Americans, was a remarkable legislative achievement. No civil rights legislation had passed since 1875.
Many possible comparisons between that effort and now are evident, few favorable to now....
LBJ spent his relentless energies and skills over seven months mostly on finding the means to assemble difficult Senate alliances (securing a bloc of Western-state senators by promising them, in secret, long-sought federal dams). This Congress has used up its energies with fights over endless policy detail. The "filibuster-proof" Senate let them think the institution's internal politics didn't matter. It always matters....
Most relevant for this moment: The Civil Rights Act of 1957 was "incremental." LBJ decided he had to prove it possible to pass notable, if partial, civil-rights legislation—"break the virginity," is how he put it. This meant abandoning two big provisions in the bill, enraging some, but not all, of the Senate's liberals. In short, jam-breaking compromise, of which there's been little with ObamaCare. I'm guessing the one person in the White House who has read Caro's book is Rahm Emanuel, the incrementalist....
The idea that Obama should become LBJ, even in the glare of modern media, reveals how other-worldly our politics has become. Only a dilettante would believe a Barack Obama can walk in off the street and be LBJ. To read Caro's account of the hours, years, effort, savvy and muscle memory Lyndon Johnson built over a career to become "LBJ" is to know why Washington "doesn't work" anymore....