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Could Afghanistan Become Obama's Vietnam?
| NYT 'analysis' piece. I thought Vietnams only happened to Republican presidents these days ... |
By Peter Baker
WASHINGTON -- President Obama had not even taken office before supporters were etching his likeness onto Mount Rushmore as another Abraham Lincoln or the second coming of Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Yet what if they got the wrong predecessor? What if Mr. Obama is fated to be another Lyndon B. Johnson instead?
| Wasn't President Johnson the white guy who lifted his beagle up by the ears? Somebody doesn't like Mr. Obama any more. |
To be sure, such historical analogies are overly simplistic and fatally flawed, if only because each presidency is distinct in its own way.
| Well golly, that was profound. And deep, man. |
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.
| Does Mr. Obama's White House even know about its previous residents from the dim past? I've seen no hint of a historical sensibility. |
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
| The legendary Some make their appearance. Some always make their opinions known in New York Times pieces of any weight. |
of Mr. Johnson's struggles to build a Great Society while fighting in Vietnam.
Posted by: Steve White 2009-08-23 |
