Reply #99: I don't see it as racist but I do see it as diminishing the role of King and others [View All]

[karynnj]

I see it as being too willing to credat the President with everything that passes. Here, I think it took guts for LBJ to do it, but it would not have happened in that decade without King. It could have happened with another President. (HRC should consider whether Bush deserves all the credit or whether Kerry and Frist deserve credit too for the AIDS in Africa program Bush signed into to law that greatly increased assistance over what Clinton allowed when he was in office. (Kerry advocated for it and his SFRC staffer and he wrote it and got Frist on board. Or does Bush get credit for the first increase in 20 years in CAFE standards. He signed it into law.)

You needed King plus the movement he fostered and people in the Senate willing to risk their seat to do what was right - as Al Gore's dad did.

I think it was a politically strange comment - MLK is an icon and LBJ isn't though without Vietnam he would have had a shot at it.