Wednesday, December 21, 2016

Political skills: LBJ got the Civil Rights bill passed, could Obama have done it? JFK?

I'm watching a BlogginHeads discussion between Glenn Loury and Joshua Cohen. They've been evaluating Obama, giving him a C of C-. Cohen is comparing Obama's standard-issue back-room wheeling-and-dealing political skills with those of Lyndon Johnson (starting at, say, 29:00), noting that Johnson got he Civil Rights bill passed. He and Loury agree that most likely Obama couldn't have done that. They keep saying that, as a person Obama is admirable in various ways, but his ability to make political deals is not so hot.

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