LBJ certainly screwed things over in record time and gradually managed to kill a lot of my generation playing his version of war games. FDR lost the Depression and was bailed out by WW2 - which he managed not to screw up. We'll forever be paying for FDR's and LBJ's social reforms and programs. Comparing Biden to those two knuckleheads means we're royally screwed.
How was LBJ viewed by people during his time period? My grandfather was a big FDR Democrat but always said he thought LBJ had a hand in JFK’s assassination.
LBJ had a CIA plant inside the Goldwater campaign.I drew a blank on that - had to really think back. I was a HS senior when Kennedy was killed and Johnson sworn in; I think the entire nation gave him a lot of initial support - at least that's the way it appeared to me. I went on to UT and then the Army and was overseas during the last part of Johnson's reign - and really wasn't big on politics anyway. I didn't like the guy; and I would have voted for Goldwater (except dems hadn't screwed up the voting age yet). The dems did a really good job of character assassination with Goldwater from my view (with limited political interest) ... that was also a time when most of the South was Yellow Dog democrat territory, so LBJ was viewed more favorably than he deserved by most people in TN at that time. I'd guess that his social programs he ran with when he was elected on his own were both in the long run his undoing and that of a solid South for dems. To me the greatest thing I ever heard Johnson say was that he would not run again for president. I always took that to mean that he realized he'd screwed things up so badly to do so would be a complete embarrassment. Viet Nam and LBJ's policy of gradualism instead of going in to win was a blunder like most other stuff LBJ touched; it led to a lot of causalities and violent protest which very much hurt his chances for winning reelection.
I drew a blank on that - had to really think back. I was a HS senior when Kennedy was killed and Johnson sworn in; I think the entire nation gave him a lot of initial support - at least that's the way it appeared to me. I went on to UT and then the Army and was overseas during the last part of Johnson's reign - and really wasn't big on politics anyway. I didn't like the guy; and I would have voted for Goldwater (except dems hadn't screwed up the voting age yet). The dems did a really good job of character assassination with Goldwater from my view (with limited political interest) ... that was also a time when most of the South was Yellow Dog democrat territory, so LBJ was viewed more favorably than he deserved by most people in TN at that time. I'd guess that his social programs he ran with when he was elected on his own were both in the long run his undoing and that of a solid South for dems. To me the greatest thing I ever heard Johnson say was that he would not run again for president. I always took that to mean that he realized he'd screwed things up so badly to do so would be a complete embarrassment. Viet Nam and LBJ's policy of gradualism instead of going in to win was a blunder like most other stuff LBJ touched; it led to a lot of causalities and violent protest which very much hurt his chances for winning reelection.