I don't know who this Jeffrey Stewart person is on Politico, but I love what he said about Obama

[LovinLife]

"If Obama is going to be a successful legislative President, he needs to start acting more like LBJ and less like JFK. Rewarding friends and punishing enemies is the first principle of politics. Obama needs to recall that dictum as he moves forward to pass the legislation in the Senate and reassure an anxious Democratic base that change is really coming."


Couldn't agree more

[babylonsister]

1. fyi, politico is a r/w POS rag, all of it usually. And welcome to DU. nt

[gateley]

2. Kind of OT, but I wasn't aware that JFK was viewed as conservative.

I heard some people discussing it on MSNBC a while back (JFK - conservative, RFK - less so, Teddy, the True Liberal)and they were all in agreement.

I guess I assumed (I know) that being a Kennedy, he was Liberal :shrug:

That makes this quote cited in the OP make more sense to me - although I agree with babylonsister about Politico.

And welcome to DU! :hi:

Edit spelling

[LovinLife]

4. I think this guy was just talking about temperament. People knew when LBJ was pissed at them. NT

[gateley]

20. Ah -- I see. I've often said that Obama should send Biden

down to the floor to do an LBJ on those people -- he could get away with it.

[BklnDem75]

3. Politico?

Did this Jeffrey person actually say this, or did unnamed sources and aides mention hearing him say something along those lines?

[Ikonoklast]

5. Really.

I don't.

Welcome to DU, and so forth..


And Politico is a tool of the right-wing. They don't tell you that the majority that LBJ enjoyed isn't there for Obama.

Just a little fact there for you.

[impik]

6. Oh look. it's the "Obama should be like LBJ" blah, blah, blah.

[emulatorloo]

7. Read the wiki article on Politico. Check out the funding of it. Then hit mediamatters

and dig around there to learn more about Politico.

[Metta]

8. If he wants to be Abe Lincoln, he'll end up as LBJ. If he's Harry Truman, he could be FDR.

Harry Truman minus the bomb, that is. So far, by betraying his base and having thugs like Emanuel, Geithner and Summers on staff, he's on his way to a one term presidency.

[Drunken Irishman]

14. Have you been paying attention?

Or living in a hole the last month?

On his way to being a one-term president would suggest he's tanking across the nation.

That isn't the case. So, unless you see something I don't...maybe you shouldn't talk. It just makes you look lost.

[Metta]

21. We apparently see him from different parts of the field.

Waving across the distance.

[Clio the Leo]

9. How many times did LBJ do what Barack Obama did last night?

I LOVE LOVE LOVE LBJ, the man is an American hero for social reform, but he's about to lose his bragging rights.

[WeDidIt]

10. I prefer it when Obama is like Obama

which is what he's been doing as long as I've known about him.

[Cha]

15. Yes, Obama is always going to be

Obama..no matter how much the nags want him to be like someone else.

[vaberella]

11. I voted for Obama, not LBJ or JFK. If you want them take a time machine.

It wasn't good for Black people in that time, and being that I'm Black I'll leave you to it.

[treestar]

24. +1

I was not looking for a new LBJ when I voted. Nor a new JFK.

I voted for Obama because he was Obama.

[Drunken Irishman]

12. Yeah. That JFK was such a failure.

[provis99]

18. ok, so what did JFK accomplish? He was a failure.

Oh, he nearly got us all killed in global nuclear war over a crisis he created in Cuba. some accomplishment.

[Jennicut]

13. When can Obama start being himself? Is he allowed that yet?

I wasn't even alive when LBJ was President. He did great things (civil rights, medicare) and some very terrible things (Vietnam). He was far from perfect.

[impik]

16. Yep. I'd like Obama just be Obama.

[grantcart]

17. Yep more Gulf of Tonkin Resolutions is exactly what this country needs

[Orsino]

19. Obama can't afford it.

A few years have passed since Camelot and LBJ, and Congress is more thoroughly corrupt than ever. Entrenched problems have gotten so severe that only grand coalitions can address them.

President Obama builds vast coalitions in large part because he eschews that back-scratching and -stabbling that worked well in the middle of the last century.

[Connie_Corleone]

22. Obama is Obama. He has his own way of moving legislation forward.

If some of you wanted LBJ, you should've dug him up and ran him instead.

[ClarkUSA]

23. I can't wait for more OPs from you based on Pearls of Wisdom from Politico writers. nt