[Leaning Right]

Excellent points in your last post. As much as I despise LBJ for what he did regarding Vietnam, LBJ had no prior history to guide him. I suppose LBJ thought that, at worst, Vietnam would end in stalemate like Korea.

But Bush II had the Vietnam experience as a guide in what not to do. But Bush ignored it. LBJ's “win the hearts and minds” campaign became Bush's “nation-building.”

So, yes, I rate Bush II as a worse president than LBJ for that fact alone. Unlike Vietnam, Afghanistan simply had to be won decisively. Radical islam is MUCH more dangerous than Vietnamese communism.

I will now shut down my Bush-bashing machine for the day.

[Theodore R.]

I think LBJ was worse than GWB; the long-term failed ramifications of both will be forever with us. It’s amazing that TX is the most Republican state in the Union based on elections since 1994, when GWB was first elected governor. I shudder to think what the future holds.

[Verginius Rufus]

Thomas Ricks was on C-SPAN last night (a repeat showing, I think). He has written a couple of books about the Iraq War and doesn't seem to be much of a fan of GWB but had some interesting points.

He compared FDR to LBJ. FDR listened to his best military men like George Marshall even when he didn't like what they told him. LBJ, in contrast, brought his top generals into the Oval Office and cursed them out.

No wonder FDR did much better dealing with Germany and Japan than LBJ did with a poor peasant country nobody had heard of until JFK started sending troops there.

I believe Victor Krulak would have been Commandant of the Marine Corps except that he insisted on telling the truth to LBJ instead of saying what the President wanted him to tell him.