...To be sure, such historical analogies are overly simplistic and fatally flawed, if only because each presidency is distinct in its own way. But the L.B.J. model — a president who aspired to reshape America at home while fighting a losing war abroad — is one that haunts Mr. Obama’s White House as it seeks to salvage Afghanistan while enacting an expansive domestic program.
In this summer of discontent for Mr. Obama, as the heady early days give way to the grinding battle for elusive goals, he looks ahead to an uncertain future not only for his legislative agenda but for what has indisputably become his war. Last week’s elections in Afghanistan played out at the same time as the debate over health care heated up in Washington, producing one of those split-screen moments that could not help but remind some of Mr. Johnson’s struggles to build a Great Society while fighting in Vietnam.
“The analogy of Lyndon Johnson suggests itself very profoundly,” said David M. Kennedy, the Stanford University historian. Mr. Obama, he said, must avoid letting Afghanistan shadow his presidency as Vietnam did Mr. Johnson’s. “He needs to worry about the outcome of that intervention and policy and how it could spill over into everything else he wants to accomplish.”
Then don't. End the War in Iraq and Afghanistan now, just pack our kids up and walk away.
Make an open ended Medicare for everyone, now, with no rationing and no age or health limits.
Take over the renegade banks now, and heavily regulate the banking and investment industry.
And when McCain and his ilk call you a socialist? Beef the hell up your Secret Service, and go for Bu$hCo-Cheneyburton. To the Hague. And while you're at it, bust up the Carlyle Group and open the entire military-security-industrial complex to the Justice Department.
You might start off with Blackwater/ Xe.
They aren't going to ride your Unity pony, so do what we elected you to do.
But stay out of open cars in Dallas, will you?
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