No Candles For Lyndon Johnson's 100th

The Thirty-Sixth President's Birthday May Go Unmarked At Convention, But He Helped Pave The Way For Obama

by Will Englund

Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2008


Today is the 100th birthday of the Democratic president who did more than any other politician to put into law the civil rights and voting rights that have enabled the rise of Barack Obama. But as the convention formally nominates Obama tonight, you will probably have to look hard and listen carefully for any references to Lyndon Baines Johnson.

During Monday's convention speeches, just two referred to Johnson--and one of them was by a Republican, former Rep. Jim Leach of Iowa.

For decades, LBJ has been the great unmentioned one at Democratic gatherings. He was a bully and a charmer, full of dynamism and insecurity, ruthlessly exploiting weaknesses in others while trying to create a more just society. He led the nation into the disaster that was the Vietnam War. But today, with memories of the war fading -- John McCain was the only major presidential candidate this year who played a role in that conflict -- some of Johnson's supporters are wondering whether it isn't time to honor him for his monumental domestic achievements.

Victory Bell, a 74-year-old alderman from Rockford, Ill., and a delegate to the convention, thinks that it's about time. "The Civil Rights and Voting Rights acts were the bridge that brought minorities over into the opportunity to advance, in education, in politics, in society," he said Tuesday. "Lyndon Johnson's experience of being born in the South made him aware and sensitive to the history of discrimination. The Civil Rights Act and the War on Poverty are why I am where I am today."

Tessie Taylor of Aberdeen, N.C., another delegate, said, "It made a phenomenal difference in getting America to where we are today" -- that is, with an African American as the Democrats' nominee for president. "This campaign isn't about race, but it's about inclusion of all Americans," she said, and in that sense she thinks a nod to LBJ is exactly what's needed.

But tonight's theme is national security, and in attacking the war in Iraq it's unlikely that many Democratic speakers will want to raise the memory of Johnson and risk reminding viewers at home of the previous generation's debacle in Vietnam.

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