Here's a reason to look back at Lyndon Baines Johnson and crack a huge smile at his wicked humor

[Mira]

Proof:
4th car down
http://www.nps.gov/lyjo/planyourvisit/presidentialvehicles.htm

[Cooley Hurd]

1. Ol' LBJ was all about fucking with people's heads...

...whether it be legislatively:



...or just generally.

[msongs]

2. yeah, he got stuff done without caving in to republicans ... cool car there tho nt

[Leslie Valley]

3. Especially that really neat Gulf of Tonkin Resolution that he got rammed through

But having super Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress might have helped.

And he loved his dogs too, so there's that.

[Honeycombe8]

5. I think I read his family convinced him to quit doing that "trick" with his dogs.

He really did love dogs. Always had his dogs around, and he had quite a few dogs. His daughter tells a sweet story how she brought home a mutt she rescued, and her parents allowed her to keep it. Before long, it became LBJ's constant companion. They had an unusual bonding. Yuki was with LBJ all the time, including on Air Force Once, when LBJ stepped down from the Presidency.

Yuki went with LBJ when he retired to his ranch, and outlived the President. Then LBJ's daughter, Luci, took Yuki back to live with her, until he died.

LBJ adored Yuki. Here they are howling together.

[HiPointDem]

14. unlike bush and his photo-op pets.

i have mixed feelings about johnson, but he comes across as a 'real' personality as opposed to a manufactured one -- my feeling about every president starting with reagan is that what we see is largely their manufactured persona.

[Honeycombe8]

15. That's exactly how I feel. Mixed feelings about Johnson, but at least we saw the real man.

I sort of understand the brusque, unethical politician that he was, since I'm from Louisiana (Huey Long and all). Reagan forward, we saw the image that was meant for us to see.

I think we knew Reagan, though, since he had been in the limelight for years.

[tabasco]

17. Is that Robert Byrd in that photo?

Any help?

[HiPointDem]

13. +1

[NBachers]

4. I've heard literally, too. I'd rather not believe that but it leaves a little mental asterisk for me

I also believe he'd have won in '68, too, if he hadn't been chased out of office. How different things would've been if Nixon hadn't been elected.

[Spider Jerusalem]

6. That "sense of humour" is consistent...

and fits well with the image of LBJ I've gleaned from people who knew him and worked with him (and from the Robert Caro biography), which is of a bullying narcissistic asshole. (Practical jokes that involve scaring the shit out of people? not really that funny.)

[brush]

7. Except for Vietnam, got more good social programs passed than any president since FDR

Last edited Sun Mar 31, 2013, 12:33 AM - Edit history (1)

I've read the Caro biographies also. There's more than just one volume, btw. Johnson got very bad advice from McNamara and his generals on Vietnam but he got all that civil rights and Great Society legislation passed that really improved the quality of life thousands of people then and now. And his seating of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (lead by the great civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer) at the 1964 Democratic National Convention lead to the downfall of the Dixiecrats. They fled the party and became Repugs, which is why that party has that racist strain in it to this day.

So LBJ did a lot of good things domestically, foreign policy, not so much.

[Spider Jerusalem]

8. Multiple volumes, one biography

Martin Gilbert's biography of Churchill runs to eight volumes; it's still a single biography.

And I don't dispute that LBJ was in some ways an oldschool New Deal Democrat, but he's also proof that one needn't be a good or admirable person to do good things.

[shrike]

18. The Devil doing God's work

That's how I see Johnson; I'm reading the Caro biography as well.

[pamela]

9. I just visited the LBJ Ranch last week.

Here's a blog post about it if anyone is interested.

http://postcardsfrompamandlarry.blogspot.com/

[Gemini Cat]

10. Those are amazing photos. nt

[pamela]

11. Wow, thanks.

I'm always a bit taken aback when someone compliments my photos 'cause I'm strictly a quick point and shoot photographer. I envy the good photographers with the patience to master a good camera.

Thanks again! My next blog post is going to be about a VERY cool place a nice DUer suggested I visit. Stop back in a few days when I finally post it and check it out. No one reads my blog except my parents and a few friends so it's nice to have new visitors.

[onethatcares]

12. well, just to let you know

I liked the photographs as well.

I do believe he was the last president to ever be schooled in such a building. Things like that make your roots run deep.

[pamela]

16. Thank you!

I agree about how his roots shaped him. Lady Bird, too. I'm down here at the beginning of wildflower season so I have great appreciation for Lady Bird and her beautification efforts right now.