Democratic Primaries

He was my father's senator in 1950 and had Congress pass a private bill (a procedure long discontinued by that body) that enabled my mother and me (an 18-month old baby) to leave Okinawa to join my father in this country (OK-- Texas). I was in junior high when much of Great Society legislation was passed, and in high school when I overheard fellow classmates, offspring of University of Michigan professors, snicker about Johnson's southern drawl. I even enlisted in the army during the height of the Vietnam war (idiot). Although I fully recognize Johnson's responsibility for the Vietnam debacle, I will forcefully point out that Johnson's key advisors on the war were all JFK holdovers. Johnson's passion was the "Great Society"-- not Vietnam-- and I will always believe that war killed him along with 50,000 Americans and god knows how many Vietnamese. (Eric F. Goldman, a Johnson advisor excoriated by his fellow Ivy Leaguers for working with "Uncle Cornpone," wrote The Tragedy of Lyndon Johnson" (1969), and explains my loathing of the "intellectual elites.&quot

Tip O'Neil is credited with, "All politics is local." After our family was reunited, Johnson offered to help my father-- literally a Texas farm boy just out the Navy-- find a job in D.C. (My father declined.) Unlike too many politicians these days, Johnson never forgot his constituents-- many of whom were dirt poor. Like my family.

P.S. I'm not responsible for that goddam smiley face.

P.P.S. I read The Accidental President decades ago. I remember nothing of it except the author's snarkiness.